Jeff Probst is sharing his thoughts on the first tribal council of Survivor season 47, during which a famous contestant got voted out as the first cast-off of the season.
The longtime host says he was “shocked” by what happened during the elimination.
Keep reading to find out more…
During the immunity challenge, Andy Rueda suffered from heat exhaustion while watching his team lose the challenge. In front of every other contestant, he explained that he passed out while contemplating if he should throw his ally Jon Lovett under the bus to make sure he gets ahead.
Well, it seemed clear that the Gata tribe would vote Andy out, but in the end, they voted out Jon because they wanted to keep some physical strength on the tribe.
For those who don’t know, Jon is a former speechwriter for prominent Democrat politicians, currently hosts the Pod Save America podcast, and was once engaged to Ronan Farrow.
“Based on how things were after the challenge, I was shocked,” Jeff said on his On Fire with Jeff Probst podcast (via EW). “I thought Andy was done and he seemed to be a massive liability for all the reasons we’ve been talking about.”
Jeff added, “In hindsight, Jon is obviously a very bright guy, and he’s a tremendous storyteller. And so it really should never be a surprise that people like Sam might pick up on this idea and decide, ‘You know what? Andy could actually be more valuable because of what happened, and Jon will be a massive threat because of who he is. So maybe the move right now in episode 1 is to take out somebody we all believe could win this game.’ And I think that’s what they did.”
Jeff also talked about the casting process on how he wasn’t sure about Jon at first.
“My first impressions were what you might expect. I wrote, ‘He’s amazing, very compelling, incredible storyteller. He will be great. Yes, he should be on the show.’ And then as we continued to talk more in future conversations, I wrote, ‘He does overthink things. This could cause decision-making issues.’ And then after another interview, I wrote, ‘He should and could go very deep. He’s so smart. What would stop him?’” he said.
Jeff added that what stopped Jon was “something unexpected. Andy has this collapse and starts to throw him under the bus, and that goes back to the very beginning of this episode, which is the uncertainty that starts when you’re on that beach and your story is yet to be told. Well, the first words are being written, and maybe Jon Lovett said something in those opening moments that somebody else clocked and went, ‘Who is that guy?’”
Jon Lovett voted out
Jeff has revealed if he’d ever compete on the show himself.