Survivor has been on the air for over 20 years. Throughout that time, the show has introduced fans to numerous memorable contestants. Host Jeff Probst recently shared details about the casting process for Survivor, including how it has changed since the early days.
‘Survivor’ used to put prospective contestants into boxes
According to Probst, when Survivor was just starting out in the early 2000s, the show cast its contestants in a similar way to other reality TV series at the time. They mostly looked for people who represented certain archetypes.
“In the beginning of reality casting, people were put in a box, and we were a part of that,” Probst shared on his new podcast, On Fire with Jeff Probst. “You were the alpha male or the single bombshell, or you were the nerd.”
He continued, “That made it easier to apply … You could just create a persona of what you thought we wanted, and I’ll admit, oftentimes, it would get you on the show.” However, Survivor has since moved away from this type of casting.
‘Survivor’ now focuses on finding ‘authenticity’
Nowadays, Probst and the casting team want to find people who are authentically themselves. “Authenticity is what connects to a player,” he explained. “Every player you’ve ever loved has one thing in common—they’re authentically true to who they are … We don’t care who you are. We just want to know ‘who are you?’”
In order to get a good sense of who someone is, prospective contestants also undergo psychological evaluations. They take tests about their personality and discuss the results with psychologists.“[The psychologists] will sit with you and discuss your life,” he said.
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“It’s a very deep dive into who you are, and it’s extremely personal and very revealing, I think, to the player when they go through this.” He added a list of example questions the psychologists aim to answer:
“Who are you? How do you operate? What makes you tick? Are you flexible and resilient? Are you a problem solver? How are you with interpersonal skills? How are you gonna be in new relationships with groups and strangers? How will you fare out in the jungle living in the wild on Survivor?”
Probst has even gone through the psychological evaluations himself and shared that it is hard for someone to fake their way through them.
‘Survivor’ also wants contestants who are fans of the show
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Survivor is a very popular show, and the casting team wants to look for people who are fans. As Probst described it, Survivor is essentially a game, and it is more fun to watch contestants who are already familiar with the game than those who are still trying to figure things out.
He explained, “If you think about playing poker, if you’re watching a table of great poker players and one person doesn’t know how to play poker, it’s not gonna make it more interesting. It’s gonna jam up the people who know how to play because gameplay has a flow … Players are making moves based on the assumption that other players are also making moves, their best moves.”
“We like people who know how to play and want to play and come out of the gate ready to play,” Probst said.
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