‘It choked me up immediately’: Jeff Probst on that tearful ‘Survivor 48’ moment between Joe and Eva
Warning: this story contains spoilers from Wednesday's Survivor 48 premiere episode. Read at your own risk!
Survivor's Jeff Probst couldn't hold back his tears when he watched early footage from the first episode of Season 48. Specifically, the moment where 23-year-old PhD candidate Eva Erickson opened up about her autism to 45-year-old fire captain Joe Hunter caused the veteran host and showrunner to reach for the tissues.
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"I had obviously heard that she had told Joe about her autism, but I had never seen the moment until I watched the first pass of Episode 1," Probst reveals exclusively to Gold Derby. "It choked me up immediately. It’s such a beautiful example of the kinds of surprising moments that can happen on Survivor when you trust the format and stay out of the way."
The scene in question took place at the Lagi tribe midway through the Season 48 premiere. Eva and Joe had already bonded prior to that, but when she confided in him about growing up with autism, and that she worried how others might perceive her in the game, their friendship was solidified beyond the show. "Even if that hurts my game, whatever," Joe told the audience. "If I gotta go home early, I'm not gonna let her down."
Gold Derby attended a special Survivor 48 premiere event on Saturday in New York City, and noticed many fans and former players in the audience with tears in their eyes watching Joe and Eva on the big screen. It will undoubtedly go down as one of the most emotional moments in Survivor history. But that wasn't the only scene that had people welling up. Specifically, the season began with raw video clips of the castaways finding out they were going to be on the show.
"Finding a new cast of players for Survivor is the single most important decision we make in any season," Probst tells us. "Thousands of hours are spent getting to know our players before we decide who is going to play. But the most enjoyable moment in the process is when our casting team gets to make the phone call to say, 'You’re going to play Survivor!' The reactions from the players are so pure and so joyful, and always emotional."
He continues on, "A few years ago we started recording the Zoom calls with the idea that one day we would use them in the show. As with most of our creative ideas, we let them marinate for a while before implementing them. When our team made the calls for Survivor 48, they let us know that there were some powerful reactions, so we took a look and made the call to begin the show that way. We think it worked out really well. It gave a unique start to the season and gave you a really intimate look at some of the players you’ll be watching in Survivor 48!"
The new tribal council set, where one player will be voted out each week, was designed with an ancient civilization in mind. As Probst explains, "The tribal council for Survivor 48 was the brainchild of Zach Jensen. He imagined a civilization that existed thousands of years ago. He named the civilization Izedaga. He then built the civilization to look as it would have when first constructed. Then he started the process of imagining how it would have been damaged over the years through war and weather and time. The result is the tribal council for Survivor 48."
SEE ‘Survivor’ deaths: Full list of castaways we’ve lost
Last weekend, the four-time Emmy-winning host announced that the upcoming 50th season of the reality TV program will officially be called Survivor 50: In the Hands of the Fans. In a nutshell, that means viewers will have all the power. They'll get to decide everything from whether there will be idols and rice, to which colors the tribe Buff should be, to whether the final four fire-making should stay or go.
Fans will vote at CBS on multiple questions throughout the airing of Survivor 48. When the all-star contestants arrive in Fiji later this summer, they will play the game that viewers have specifically designed for them. "It's time for the next evolution of the game," Probst declared. Survivor 50 will air in February 2026.
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