\nSo every season I’ve been on, Probst stood in front of us and said, \u2018This is me talking,\u2019 at a normal volume. The host repeated the phrase over and over again as he walked to the voting booth and as he returned to us. You could usually just barely hear him in the booth. Then he’d change his volume to a whisper and repeat the process. Now, you absolutely couldn’t hear a word while he’d ostensibly be voting. It’s incredibly helpful and made me feel comfortable knowing how loud to speak during the vote.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n
It’s understandable why the longtime host might do this “volume test.” If the players speak too loudly, that would spoil the fun of the official reading of the votes. Speak too quietly, and then the cameras have a difficult time picking up the brief explanations for their choices. I always knew Probst pulled double duty as an executive producer on Survivor<\/em> but, now when I\u2019m watching future seasons, I\u2019ll hilariously be imagining him repeating \u201cThis is me talking\u201d before everyone votes.<\/p>\nJeff Probst Encourages Survivor Players To Stop The Vote?<\/h2>\n Another off-camera aside that Jeff Probst supposedly delivers is, again, right before the first tribal council of a given season. Malcolm Freberg alleged that this happens for everyone, whether they be newbies or veteran players. As he tells it, Probst makes certain pointed reminders, which include the necessity of stopping the voting process if the player feels strongly about it. Freberg wrote:<\/p>\n\n\nOne point that always stands out is that you, the player, shouldn’t allow the vote to start unless you’ve said all you need to say. On one of my seasons, Probst prefaced this tip with a vague anecdote. He said a former player \u2014 I don’t know who \u2014 complained after their boot that they hadn’t gotten the chance to say all they wanted to say at Tribal. So now Probst makes a point of empowering every castaway to hold up the vote if they feel the need to do so.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n
If this is true, it does make one wonder if there\u2019s something more to it than just being a reminder \u2013 as though Jeff Probst is angling for contestants to be on edge to stir up a dramatic and memorable moment for the show. I\u2019m thinking, specifically, of a moment in Season 41 when Heather Aldret stopped the vote \u2013 even after Probst had said, very slowly, the \u201cIt\u2019s time to vote.\u201d Her scrambling at the time is arguably what created the next fracture between allies Deshawn Radden and Shan Smith, which ultimately led to her ouster (which led her to pen a message to fans) not long after. But then again, if you feel on the bottom (like how Aldret did then), it\u2019s probably a good thing to feel empowered by the face of the show to do what you can to save yourself without fear of a backlash.<\/p>\n
Malcolm Freberg added other alleged examples of BTS rituals that made him dislike tribal councils. He said the losing contestants going to tribal had the \u201cinsult to injury\u201d of having to do multiple takes of walking in and out of the set, so production could get the best (and presumably, most pitiful) shots. He also lamented how it apparently takes tribal \u201ctwo and a half hours\u201d to officially commence. And then, when they\u2019re answering Jeff Probst\u2019s questions, you\u2019re not supposed to simply answer just \u201cyes\u201d or \u201cno.\u201d Likewise, the grind of assigned seating and enforced silence in-between key moments by producers was mentioned.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, a CBS representative told the outlet that some of what the former Survivor<\/em> contestant said were \u201cfalse statements.\u201d It isn\u2019t clear which parts were false exactly but, since Freberg\u2019s last stint on the show in 2016, several changes have been implemented to new seasons, including Jeff Probst and production breaking the fourth wall. Perhaps, his experiences were the case at one point, then, but not anymore?<\/p>\nEither way, it\u2019s a good reminder that Survivor<\/em> is first and foremost a show, with a lot of protocol in place to make sure thing run smoothly. We\u2019ll find out if things run just as smoothly in terms of my theory for who will likely win Season 42. The three-hour finale airs on Wednesday, May 25 at 8 p.m. on CBS as part of the 2022 TV schedule!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When we as viewers watch Survivor, we see the major blindsides. We see the heartache and the strategic thinking bubble up from the players. The spectacular Fijian views. As a result, it\u2019s easy to forget (at least in the seasons past) that it\u2019s a huge production put on by CBS. Well, one former contestant is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":101455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101,3,105,106],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/1653184323_Two-Things-That-Jeff-Probst-Allegedly-Does-For-Survivor-Contestants.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101454"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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