Longtime “Survivor” host and showrunner Jeff Probst had an unusual way of pumping up contestants on the show. According to former player Andrea Boehlke, Probst once tried to get everyone up for the challenging reality television series by rapping the entirety of Eminem’s hit “Lose Yourself.”
Boehlke was speaking on Chris Johnson’s podcast “Passion Pod” when she made the revelation. The former contestant, who appeared on “Survivor: Redemption Island,” “Survivor: Caramoan,” and “Survivor: Game Changers,” explained that Probst took the unusual step after two contestants had dropped out of the previous season of the show.
To ensure the same thing didn’t happen again in the 2011 season, which acted as the show’s 22nd season in total, the host arrived with a boom box and proceeded to rap the whole of “Lose Yourself” just before they began filming.
“Is this real? Or did I make this up, because it seems fake,” Boehlke explained during her podcast appearance. “Before we played ‘Redemption Island,’ we all went to this clearing, and Jeff came out with a boom box.”
She continued, “Now we’re not allowed to talk [at the time]. And he has us all go in a big circle around him. So he wanted to pump us up because the season before, two people had quit the show. So they were very much like, ‘You need this. You want this. No quitters.’ So he has us all in this circle, and he turns the boom box in, and he starts rapping ‘Lose Yourself’ from Eminem. He sings the whole song and is encouraging people to dance along.”
According to Boehlke, the cast weren’t sure exactly how to respond at first. However, she noted it did seem to have the desired effect as everyone was pumped up when they arrived on the beach for the first time just a little later.
“We were all like, ‘This is Jeff Probst. We’re about to play Survivor. Let’s go,’” she explained. “And so some people are dancing, some people are really uncomfortable, and then, shortly after that, we are on the beach, ready to play.”
Jeff Probst Suggests Fans Might Help Design ‘Survivor’ Challenges in the Future
As host of one of the world’s most popular reality television shows, Probst is often in the news. He made headlines in December when he revealed that he would like to explore the possibility of fans designing “Survivor” challenges.
He said, “What I would love to do is be able to create an app where you put all of the elements from all of our challenges into the app, and let fans go in and say, ‘Have you thought of this?’”
“Because I know there are fans right now that would find a new way to create a new challenge. That’s where I’d like Survivor to go. I’d like to get more fan involvement about creating the design of the game. Because anybody can do it; there’s no secret to it. I’d love to make it more inclusive, and maybe that’s something we can pull off in the future.”
