Survivor / Characters

Due to the show having many contestants, this page is made to avoid overdosing the main page.

WARNING: Spoilers ahead are unmarked. You have been warned.

The Host

Jeff Probst

Born: November 4, 1961 (age 61)

From: Wichita, Kansas

The host of the American edition of the Survivor series since its first inception.

Actually Pretty Funny: At the Final Five Tribal Council in Cagayan, Jeff was visibly amused at all the Take Thats and angry tirades.
Berserk Button: He's normally pretty level-headed, but if someone quits without good reason, he immediately starts frowning and talking down to them. When Colton quit Blood vs. Water, he escalated to delivering a full "The Reason You Suck" Speech. (Though he's more sympathetic if you do in fact have a decent reason, such as having a mental breakdown (Kathy), having a family emergency (Jenna), are trying to quit as a gameplay maneuver (Janu), are in too much pain to continue onward (Dana), or have an injury that risks jeopardizing your career (Bi).)
- Johnny Fairplay became an especially large Berserk Button, because of something he did at the Vanuatu reunion.
- He has low tolerance for any disrespect of the pageantry and traditions of Survivor. This goes all the way back to Borneo, as the Pagong tribe all wrote Jeff down as their votes at the first Tribal Council, which resulted in him completely losing his shit at them (this never made the show, but was in Mark Burnett's book about the first season). This extends to some of his favorite players, as he was visibly pissed with Colby in Heroes vs. Villains as he tried to brush off Jeff's usual luxurious descriptions of rewards to get to the challenge.
Catchphrase: Several. They include:
- I'll go tally the votes.
- Once the votes are read, the decision is final; person voted out will be asked to leave the Tribal Council area immediately. I'll read the votes.
- If anyone has the Hidden Immunity Idol and would like to play it, now would be the time to do so.
- (X) tribe, wins Immunity/(and) Reward!
- (Nth) person voted out of Survivor: (Season) (and the Yth member of our jury)...(X).
- (X), The tribe has spoken.
  - You will have a chance to get back in this game. Grab your torch, head to Redemption Island.
- You're going to have to dig deep!
- Come on in, guys! (Modified in 41 to just be "Come on in!", in the interest of gender-neutrality.)
- Survivors ready... Go!
- You are getting a look at the new (X) tribe. (Y), voted out at the last Tribal Council.
- Grab your stuff/torches, head back to camp. Goodnight.
- Drop your buffs.
Characterization Marches On: Probst becomes a lot more aggressive with his questioning of players and more partisan in his interpretations as the seasons go on. Many fans celebrate this as him coming into his own and keeping the players on their toes, while a smaller portion of the audience feel that he Took a Level in Jerkass.
Character Shilling: Once he started to get more comfortable in his role as the host, around the same time he became a producer for the show, Jeff started to show a lot more favoritism towards certain contestants, most blatantly Boston Rob and Russell Hantz. Oddly, he has said he dislikes Russell as a person, but brought him back since he played a good game.
Double Standard: When asked by someone on Twitter why Tina Wesson hasn't been invited back since All Stars, Probst claimed that "Tina had her second chance. She failed." And yet Boston Rob was brought back for a fourth chance... This becomes Hilarious in Hindsight seeing as how she was brought back to compete in Blood vs. Water.
Elimination Catchphrase: "The tribe has spoken. (Snuffs out evicted castaway's torch) It's time for you to go."
Epileptic Trees: Some people theorize that he is actually Mikey B from Micronesia.
Executive Meddling: Being an executive producer in recent seasons has led to some, well, questionable decisions. Like Redemption Island purportedly being entirely his idea, for instance.
- A lot of viewers were irritated during Palau when it looked like Jeff was pushing Janu into quitting in order to save Stephanie. Janu did in fact want to go home, but she had agreed with her tribe to wait until Stephenie was gone, so Jeff calling off Tribal Council seemed really fishy. It was also combined with some Manipulative Editing - where he stops and asks if Janu could serve on the jury.
Everyone Has Standards:
- Jeff might sometimes be callous towards contestants, but he was absolutely shocked and livid at Varner outing Zeke in Game Changers. He also was visibly upset and wanted answers during the whole Dan sexually harassing Kellee situation in Island of the Idols, especially when Dan tries to deny that it was an issue, with him callously telling Dan that "I will never let it go."
- Jeff utterly loathes most quitters and doesn't hesitate to let it show. However, if someone quits for a valid reason, such as a desire to be with a dying family member, illness (that wouldn't normally get them pulled), a gameplay maneuver or an injury (that wouldn't normally get them pulled), he is much more sympathetic, usually giving them a nicer send off and, if they make it that far, even letting them serve on the jury.
Jade-Colored Glasses: He became very disenchanted with the show around One World, after a series of "bad" seasons, and almost quit the show. A few decent seasons later, he changed his mind.
Last-Name Basis: Jeff tends to refer to his favorite castaways by their last names; "Donaldson", "Mariano", "Culpepper", and "Deitz" are examples. Invoked when John Cochran specifically asked to be referred to by last name for this reason. Jeff lampshaded his habit himself during Sarah's discussion of gender bias in the Winners At War finale, noting that he had done it several times for men but rarely for women, and made it a point to call Sarah "Lacina" as a sign of respect.
Not So Stoic: According to Mark Burnett's book, Greg Buis' antics are one of the only things that have succeeded — albeit off-camera — in making him lose his temper.
Older Than They Look: He doesn't look like a guy in his early sixties, which is quite surprising given how much sun he's gotten over the years!
One-Steve Limit: Averted occasionally with other Jeffs appearing in the cast: Jeff Varner, Jeff Wilson, and Jeff Kent.
The Stoic: Whenever he's not announcing for challenges, he maintains a very calm and level demeanor; even when his Berserk Button gets pushed he never loses his composure. One of the best examples is seen in Caramoan, where he has to talk down a raging Brandon and prevent him from trying to go postal on his tribe.
Real Men Don't Cry: Has never shed a tear on-camera on the show. This is so apparent that another game offering a million-dollar prize, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, used him as the subject of a jokey first question, and host Chris Harrison noted, "Jeff Probst never cries." However, we caught a rare glimpse of a very emotional Probst in Ghost Island when Angela's family reunion with her daughter and mentioning sacrificing her family for the military affected him so badly he halted production for 45 minutes.
Took a Level in Jerkass: He's much nicer to the contestants in early seasons, at least on camera. He was berating contestants as early as Pagong's first tribal in Borneo, when the contestants all decided to vote for him, but the more callous side of him didn't get shown until later in the series.
Tranquil Fury: In Game Changers, he shares everyones anger when Varner outs Zeke's transsexuality in an effort to save himself from being voted out. But unlike the others, he keeps the same tone as he chews out Varner for ruining Zeke's life and leaving major repercussions for the LGBT community. All that anger appears when he skips the vote entirely and tells Varner to get his torch.
Unreliable Narrator: Did you know that someone in Redemption Island actually found the hidden immunity idol before the first tribal council? Given his recap of the season, you'd actually be very surprised to find that out.
- His intense dislike for the Fangs in Gabon is highly obvious.
- In Blood vs Water Jeff accused Colton of faking the sickness that got him removed from One World, when in fact the medical team was brought out and they did find symptoms of illness. Perhaps Colton could have bucked up and dealt with it better, but that's a far cry from being evacuated over nothing.
- It's also pretty obvious he dislikes a couple contestants; namely Jonny Fairplay, Abi-Maria Gomes, Jonathan Penner.
  - Penner is just a case of Sitcom Arch-Nemesis and playing up Penner's back-and-forth banter with Jeff, as they apparently like one another in real life. Fairplay, though, Probst has outright confirmed his legitimate dislike for as a person. The feelings are mutual on Fairplay's end.
Vocal Evolution: Probst's voice becomes deeper, scratchier, and sassier as the seasons wear on and he gets older. It shows very much in the first season, Borneo, where he hadn't embraced the role of Survivor host and come to endear it. His delivery of a lot of the Tribal Council lines is under-confident and muddled and lacks polish; when someone gets enough votes to be eliminated, he overspeaks and says the rest are irrelevant rather than a concise, "That's X votes — that's enough — I need you to come bring me your torch."
Wham Line: Delivers one at the end of Ghost Island where he stated that he will read the votes out loud at the final Tribal Council instead of waiting until the reunion show.