Survivors, ready?: Jeff Probst tells all on Season 46 of ‘Survivor’
With a brandnew season on the horizon, long-time host and executive producer Jeff Probst dives in to tell all on the upcoming 46th season of “Survivor,” premiering Wednesday, Feb. 28, on CBS, with a super-sized, two-hour episode.
Entering their second season of keeping to a 90-minute format, this round of gameplay is sure to bring ups, downs, major wins, devastating losses and twists galore — and Probst has all the latest details.
“The cast of Season 46 is a really unusual collection of smart, funny, eclectic humans,” Probst recently told EW. “You’re going to love so many of them ... There is a sense of humor and sense of fun that is going to make this group really entertaining to watch.”
Entertainment Weekly, which was also on location in Fiji’s Mamanuca Islands for the start of filming, met Season 46’s contestants alongside Probst and went on to say that these latest castaways are “a high-energy bunch filled with vim, vigor [and] moxie” — a statement backed up by a season sneak peek shared by CBS, overflowing with personality as it shares clips from the casting process, including guitar solos, workout routines, “Survivor” superfans and some solid life advice.
Probst added: “I know I say this every time, but I promise it’s true — I am so excited for Survivor 46! We haven’t even started editing yet and I’m already pumped.” As for editing, Probst went on to explain that this season was filmed with the series’ recent, 90-minute format in mind (originally adopted to fill airspace during last year’s writers’ strike), but for the duration of the game, the production team remained uncertain whether the new format would remain or if they would return to 60-minute episodes.
“All of the producers in every department knew to just be thinking of 90 minutes while we’re out there, and if you see an opportunity for a deeper story or you have an idea that we could add into something that’s already in our game design, let’s talk about it,” Probst explained. “The challenge became ... we have to reverse engineer in the other direction. What can we do if we don’t have time to show it where we could lose it and it wouldn’t impact the central dramatic question of who is going home? We had a lot of fun with that.”
With hours and hours of castaway drama, games and loads of fun to come, this upcoming season is sure to stun. “Survivor” returns to CBS with a two-hour premiere, airing Wednesday, Feb. 28.