Jeff Probst Breaks Down ‘Survivor’ 50’s Celeb Collabs, Promises They Don’t ‘Overshadow’ the Game: ‘Our Show Is Not Changing’

Survivor 50 Goes All In: Jeff Probst Hands the Game to Fans — and Brings Celebrities With It

When Jeff Probst began planning “Survivor” 50, he knew he had to go big. As always, that began with the cast — sifting through the 700+ castaways who have competed over the last 25 years to find the most memorable and iconic ones to return. Then, Probst quickly moved onto designing the season’s theme.

As revealed in the first trailer for this season, “In the Hands of the Fans” will include twists featuring Billie Eilish and Jimmy Fallon, and cameos from Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson and Zac Brown.

But don’t fret, “Survivor” loyalists: Probst isn’t losing the plot.

“Once we committed to turning the game design over to the fans, the next question became: ‘How far can we go with this idea!?’” the host and showrunner tells Variety. “We knew some of ‘Survivor’s’ biggest fans happen to be celebrities, so we thought sprinkling a few of them in with their own unique twists felt like a fun way to make the game even more unpredictable! It definitely caught the players off guard in some really exciting ways, and added another layer to this celebratory season.”

This is the largest cast to ever play, and the castaways will, as always, be the real stars of the season — even when there are game-changing twists with celebrities attached. Variety was on set in Fiji for two of the collaborations, and can confirm that “Survivor” still feels like “Survivor,” even when A-list names are attached.

“I think it’s a legitimate concern when you start adding layers like celebrities, that they can overshadow the game and take it off course. Our job was to make sure that we stayed true to what we’re doing on ‘Survivor,’ which is exploring this continuous social experiment. And now we’re adding another layer,” Probst says. “And when you bring in a celebrity like Zac Brown or MrBeast or Jimmy Fallon, you now add idolatry, and you add different perceptions and reputations. Suddenly, people can get off track a little bit, or they lean in, and they want something to do with Jimmy Fallon. A lot of the players said, ‘I’ve always dreamed of being in a MrBeast video.’ So the twist is designed to see if you can stay on course with the thought process you should — or how is it going to shift your thought process, and will it do you in?”

He also adds that he didn’t go out to celebrities and ask who wanted to be involved — it was through his own friendships and relationships that each collaboration came about. And it was the celebrity’s idea.

“With Jimmy Fallon, it was on his show. Jimmy texts me ideas all the time about ‘Survivor,’ and we put some of them in the show, and we’ve always talked about this idea,” Probst says. That idea, for now, won’t be shared — but it is an exciting one, which is hinted at during the trailer, and didn’t go at all how Probst thought it would. “I think people will see, when they see these play out, I think they’ll understand these are legit ‘Survivor’ fans who wanted to be a part of 50.”

The biggest collab of the season, however, will be the one with MrBeast; Probst appears on Season 2 of “Beast Games” and Donaldson shows up for something on Season 50 of “Survivor.” The cameos were filmed days apart from each other in June in Fiji.

The crossover conversation began when Lori DelliColli, VP of communications at CBS, was eating breakfast, and her kids showed her a MrBeast video. One of his team members, Karl Jacobs, was wearing a “Survivor” buff and talking about the show. She flagged to the marketing team, who invited Jacobs, along with “Beast Games” co-creator Sean Klitzner, to participate in the influencer experience filmed ahead of Season 49.

No one knew at the time just how big of fans they were of the franchise. Executive producer Matt Van Wagenen recalls Klitzner applying and getting close to being cast on an earlier season. In 2020, Jacobs DM’d Van Wagenen on Twitter (as it was then), raving about the show. Van Wagenen mailed him a crew T-shirt and when Jacobs posted it on social media, the producer started hearing from friends and family. He had no idea how big Jacobs’ following was. Once they re-met in Fiji, “it felt like this was a conversation we never finished,” Van Wagenen says.

During the influencer experience, Klitzner pitched Probst on some sort of collaboration — and “the camaraderie was instant; my respect for them was instant,” says Probst. “And then it was Lori’s idea to say, ‘That felt like some synergy there.’ We’ve never said, ‘Let’s collaborate with another show.’ Ever. We are our own tiny little world trying to just stay out of the way, and do our show.”