Yahoo News Jeff Probst's mind exploded when he first saw “Survivor” Tribal Council flash-forward scene
"WTF! Holy Smokes. MIND EXPLODING. Mind blown. Crime scene. Call 911. An older white male just had his mind explode all over his patio. Urgent care needed."
Survivor just broke the space-time continuum. Either that, or it just did some really fancy editing to do something it never has before in 45 seasons — show us a Tribal Council happening before it actually happened.
The flash-forward occurred on Thursday's installment of Survivor 45, when contestant Jake O'Kane on day 13 of the game laid out a possible scenario to happen later at that evening's Tribal Council. Jake's plan involved himself, Kaleb Gebrewold, and Katurah Topps all voting for Julie Alley, while Julie, Austin Li Coon, and Dee Valladares would all vote for Kaleb. Under Jake's scenario, the tie would then lead to a revote, which would also be a tie. Jake then assured the others that Austin would fold rather than go to a rock vote that could potentially send him home, giving their side the win and sending Julie to the jury.
Hearing Jake's plan was not so unique for a show filled with strategy talks and various potential scenarios, but the visuals accompanying said plan were downright shocking. That's because as Jake talked about people voting for Kaleb and Julie, we actually saw those votes being cast — meaning we saw scenes from a Tribal Council that had not yet happened. For the first time ever, Survivor showed scenes in advance of a Tribal Council that had not yet taken place.
It didn't just blow the minds of viewers. It blew the mind of the host as well. Jeff Probst explained his surprise on the latest episode of his On Fire podcast. "Here's this scenario," he says on the podcast. "I'm on my back deck calmly sitting. It's a Saturday morning, I'm drinking a cup of coffee and I'm watching this episode. And when I saw this moment, I was so inspired that I unconsciously sort of jumped out of my chair. I splashed coffee all over my MacBook because I was racing to get my phone to call the editor Fred Hawthorne to ask where this inspired idea came from."
It seems Hawthorne had a little trick up his sleeve and didn't even give the host a heads up about what he was trying before Probst watched the episode. "I started watching and then I realized: Wait a minute, this is tonight's Tribal," says Probst. "And it was a really interesting moment for me because I am watching the episode as a producer, because this is the last stop before we send it to the network. So that's first and foremost what's on my mind. But you can't help but also watch as a fan because the episodes are so good. So when this moment hit, my mind exploded, my knees jumped off, thus the coffee splash all over my MacBook."
Probst, who shared his casting journals with EW for our recent Survivor cover story, also wrote down his reaction to the editing maneuver in his notes. "Here's what I wrote," he says. "WTF! Holy Smokes. MIND EXPLODING. Mind blown. Crime scene. Call 911. An older white male just had his mind explode all over his patio. Urgent care needed." Sums up the host: "That's how blown away I was with this truly inventive idea."
Once the full Tribal Council was shown later in the episode, it was revealed that Jake's plan did not play out the way he envisioned. Instead, Katurah joined the three original Reba members in voting out Kaleb. But it was a clever wrinkle to put images to words and show pieces of how a plan might have played out under different circumstances. As surprising as this twist of showing pieces of a future Tribal Council was, there could be an even bigger editing trick on the horizon.
"I called Fred," says Probst on the podcast. "It was a Saturday, and he said, 'Well, I've always wanted to do that, but I have an even bigger idea. And one day when the right episode lines up, I think it'll work and I'm going to give it a try.' So we have that to look forward to in a future episode. In a future season of Survivor is the Fred Hawthorne magic trick."
Hopefully the host will have 911 on speed dial by then.
For much more inside intel from Probst on the latest episode check out On Fire: The Official Survivor Podcast.
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