Yuku free message boards

Survivor: Gabon - Press Conference

Question: Talk a little bit about Gabon as a location.

Jeff Probst: Gabon is one of the most remote, if not the most remote location we've ever been, and we've wanted to come back to Africa for a long time. We were actually scouting in the Kalahari Desert and the Okavango Delta near Botswana for next season, and then Gabon presented itself for season 17 and we thought the location was so majestic that we couldn't pass it up. The important thing was that we found a location had had something different to offer than Kenya, and that was not quite as dry-looking just from a visual point of view. Gabon is absolutely stunning, and it's a mix of jungle, open grasslands, desert, topography, plains. It really is spectacular. The camps are, fortunately for the Survivors, located right on lakes, so they're able to fish. You know, there's things for them to do besides just stay around their huts like they did in Kenya.

Jeff Probst: One of the things we wanted to make sure we did in editing the show was make sure that the viewers at home get that "African connection." Coming back to Africa was a big deal and some of the contestants this season have personal stories in Africa, like Gillian and Paloma are the two I'm thinking of, and we want to make sure you get to see that. You'll also see some great cultural rewards, maybe going to an African school or a village and interacting with the people. We also want to make sure that we show as much of the wildlife as we can. You know, there are a few encounters out there; thankfully, nobody got hurt, but there's something as small as leeches to something as big as an elephant, and they're out there. And imagine how rare it is to see something caught on camera where you wake up and there's an elephant fifty feet from camp or a hundred feet. Or you find leopard footprints on the way to treemail. The point is that these are wild animals and they're really there, and we want to show that as much as we can.

Question: How much of an impact has filming in H.D. had on the show?

Jeff Probst: It's huge. Filming in high definition has completely changed the look of the show; I don't know why we didn't do it sooner. You know, I look at some of the footage from Gabon, and then I look back at Micronesia and I'm in awe at how clear it is. I'm not exaggerating when I say that you'll feel like you're right there, and it's something that, I think, has reinvented how we feel about the show, and we take advantage of the H.D. wherever we can this season.

Question: Can you tell us about how Exile Island works this time?

Jeff Probst: Well, Exile Island is actually just "Exile" this season because we're filming inland, so what we do is we drop them in the middle of, essentially desert, but there's grassland to one side of them and jungle to another side, and they have a lake, so "Exile" is really a big area that they're allowed to roam around in. It's standard now that you go to Exile, you get a clue to the hidden Immunity Idol, but we went back to what we did in Fiji and in China with hiding one idol at each camp. The idol is actually buried under each tribe's flag, so all you do on Exile is you get the clue and you can't look for it. That's gonna create a lot of free time, and because we don't want to film the Survivors doing nothing on Exile, the big twist in keeping with the theme of temptation is that when you're exiled, you get a chance to take comfort and sleep on a hammock and get some fresh fruit or whatever the case may be. But, this is Survivor; you're supposed to be suffering, so there's a catch: if you take that comfort at any time while you're out there, your entire tribe takes a penalty at the next Immunity Challenge, so that becomes a big dilemma that plays into the strategy.

Question: How so?

Jeff Probst: Well, if you're exiled, you have to decide how selfish you want to be. You know, if you decide that you want to sleep in a hut on a comfortable hammock as opposed to sleeping on the ground, then you're responsible for potentially causing your entire tribe to lose Immunity and that's gonna piss people off. It does happen out there where somebody takes a disadvantage. After the merge, it becomes more of an individual penalty: if you take comfort, you penalize yourself in the next Immunity Challenge, so it plays out differently at different points throughout the season, but the key is not just the temptation: there's temptation and consequence, and you'll see how that manifests itself and impacts strategy because it does.

Question: What about the hidden Immunity Idol? Does that play a big part in Gabon?

Jeff Probst: The way the hidden Immunity Idol works is the same as it's been for a while now, but as I said, it's back at camp; there's one idol at each camp, and that creates a situation where more than likely, you're gonna have to get a couple people working together to find it, which is always good because you could have more than one person claiming ownership over an idol. And it's interesting to see how people use that information because not everyone knows where the idol is. They're not told it's at camp, so unless you go to Exile or unless someone tells you, you're left in the dark. The other thing it does is it frees up time in the show where we don't have to show five minutes of one person looking for an idol on Exile because it becomes very tedious at that point.

Jeff Probst: Do they actually come into play at Tribal? The idols this season do play a big part and there's a couple of historic moments, um, courtesy of the hidden Immunity Idols. More than a few. And sometimes people are smart with them; sometimes people are dumb with them, but either way it's fun to watch, and there's quite a few moments related to the idol that I think will be great moments this season that we've never had.

Question: We know that Gabon is "Earth's Last Eden," so does that play into any of the themes of this season?

Jeff Probst: Well, as I said with Exile, the big things this season are temptation and consequence, and obviously that comes from the Garden of Eden. If you take the "apple," in this case the comfort, there's gonna be a penalty for that. There's temptation in different forms throughout the season. One of the things we do is we have the challenge where you either compete for Immunity or you can choose to take part in a feast. Another thing that comes up a lot this season that we didn't expect was revenge. There's a lot of people trying to get revenge on others for their actions, and sometimes they achieve that; sometimes they don't. So that becomes a bit of a theme too in the way it plays out.

Question: What's the schedule like this season? Is it fourteen episodes with a couple double Tribal Councils?

Jeff Probst: Once again we have a fourteen-episode season, but there's no double Tribal Councils like we've had in the past. Every Tribal Council is single elimination.

Question: That leads me to my next question, then: Is there going to be a Final Three this year? Because I think you'll have too many people for fourteen episodes…

Jeff Probst: <laughs> Obviously there's something I'm not telling you about the number of people and how that works, but I think it's always fun to leave a Final Two or a Final Three a surprise. And I promise the schedule works out fine.

Question: Any stand-out or unforgettable moments that you can talk about?

Jeff Probst: I'll give you one: someone makes one of the most despicable moves I've seen on the show in a long time, in abusing someone else's trust. It's something that you're gonna shake your head at, but is it a good move? Possibly. A lot of the other big moments have to do with the hidden Immunity Idols but there's enough going on outside of that that we don't have to rely on the idols to create drama. We have some huge characters this season that, if you stick 'em in a room together or on a tribe together, they're gonna create sparks no matter what.

Question: So who should we be keeping our eyes on?

Jeff Probst: Well, to elaborate on that, I think Gabon has some of the biggest, most well-developed characters we've had on the show in a long time and what's great about this season is you really do get to know everybody. Some of the people on this season like Crystal and Randy, you know, they're gonna be big characters whether they're voted off first or last. That's just, you know, their personalities. Crystal is a star. Loved her on the show. She never failed to deliver, and as a viewer, you're gonna hate to see her leave, if she's not in the Final Tribal. Corinne, another huge personality. Gillian, another big character; huge personality and someone that you will pull for even though you think she has no chance. Ace is another guy that people are gonna talk about. I mean, I will say this: it will be clear who the villains are right from Episode 1. There's no shortage of villains this season, and those characters are interesting; they will rub you the wrong way; and they're people that more likely than not, you're gonna want to root against. That usually means that there's a couple heroes or people that you're gonna root for, who oppose those villains. So one way or another, there's gonna be a lot of characters that you won't soon forget.

Question: Who exceeded your expectations or disappointed you with the way they played the game?

Jeff Probst: I have to say I was most surprised with Paloma. You know, sometimes you expect one thing out of somebody and somebody totally different shows up, and I'll admit, I wasn't sure about Paloma in those couple days before the game began. But I think she had a lot more in her than I gave her credit for, and I was really surprised. I mean, I might even say that Paloma was unexpected gold because she gave us a couple of great moments where I thought "Wow, Paloma. I didn't expect that from you!" <laughs> I think the lesson is that sometimes good things come in small packages, and there's no way to predict, you know, what you'll end up with on the show. I was also was more impressed with Dan than I thought I would be. You know, he got the game out there and I didn't think he would.

Jeff Probst: I'm trying to think if there was anyone who disappointed me for any reason, and you know, I don't think there was one. I think everybody that we put on this season lived up more or less to what we thought they would. There's always gonna be a couple people who I thought I'd be snuffing on Day Three who end up in the Final Four and the other way around, but I can't really say I'm disappointed in that. It's a good group of characters.

Question: Any major controversies this season?

Jeff Probst: There is a twist this season that you're either gonna love or hate. It's probably gonna be second only to the Outcasts and maybe the Final Three in, um, Belize, in terms of the response. It's something we've never done before and Gabon seemed like the right time to do it. And it's a major twist, so as far as the impact on the game, I'd say it's pretty controversial. That's probably gonna be the most controversial moment of the season.

Question: What other kinds of twists can we expect?

Jeff Probst: Well, we have a lot of twists this season, much to the chagrin of Randy, because you have to keep it fresh so that each season is something different. Obviously, Exile is a big part of this season and the hidden Immunity Idols. We also have a tribe swap, which we have more often than not in our recent seasons. The Survivors have come to expect it by now. There's a nice little twist to the merge to keep things interesting, and as for any other twists that we might throw in there, think temptation and consequence. Those are two big words this season: you might get something good in the game, but it comes at a price. I think I mentioned it already, but we also bring back the offer of having a feast or playing for Immunity because that plays into temptation. And it makes you think about how much Immunity is worth.

Question: Is there any romance this season?

Jeff Probst: There might be a little flirting here and there. The two that come to mind are Jacquie and Marcus, but there's no major romances that have any impact on the game or that made it into any of the episodes.

Question: How would you rank this season compared to the last seven?

Jeff Probst: Last time I talked to you, I said it would be hard for any season to beat China. Gabon might do it. You know, what's amazing to me after doing this for so long is that each season keeps getting better, and you think you're running out of ideas and then someone comes up with something, and suddenly you've got another great season. So is it better than Micronesia? Yes. Is it better than China? Mmm, it might be. The jury's still out on that one…

Question: So you're saying this season is either #1 or #2. Where do the others rank?

Jeff Probst: Well, it's hard, because sometimes when you haven't seen a particular season in a while and then you watch it, your opinion can really change. And I'm on location, you know, a good part of the year, so I'm not constantly rewatching them by any means, but I'd probably put Fiji as #4, after Fans vs. Favorites. Then I'd say either Cook Islands or All-Stars. I'm not sure. I think those both had some good moments and some disappointing moments. All-Stars was maybe more of a disappointment in terms of some of the people who went far and some who went out early, and it did; it got boring at the end, so it was hard to really enjoy the last couple episodes. And then as the last two I'd put Guatemala, followed by, um, Exile Island as the worst. They weren't bad seasons - just not as good as what we're putting out now, and I hope we continue getting better and better.

Question: Any amazing Tribal Councils we should be looking forward to?

Jeff Probst: You know what? I think the last two or three seasons, the Tribal Councils keep getting better, and just when you think you've seen everything that can possibly happen, you get surprised! I think the key to it, what I've learned over the years, is the less talking I do at Tribal, the more the Survivors can talk and the more they'll just go at it. We have some pretty heated Tribals this season. I mean, the first Tribal Council ends up in an argument, which shows that we have some pretty heated Tribals. <laughs>

Question: Last season in Micronesia had a record number of blindsides. How does Gabon compare?

Jeff Probst: Off the top of my head, I don't think there's as many as there were last season, but there's definitely a few good ones. I would say there's one or two, in particular, that will really stand out as great blindsides.

Question: Are there any major power shifts?

Jeff Probst: If you expect to see one alliance staying in power for very long, you obviously haven't been watching the show because that rarely happens, and Gabon is no different.

Question: What kind of challenges will there be this season?

Jeff Probst: The challenges this season are challenges that are well-suited to the landscape of Gabon. Of course there's always a few favorites that we like to re-use and just tweak them a little bit, but you'll see challenges that make use of the flat grasslands we have or, you know, the huge, rolling hills. One thing we don't have very many of is purely "water challenges," which goes without saying, but there are a few challenges where there is maybe a water component to it. There are some lakes where we filmed, so if we needed to do a challenge in the water, we were able to, but we're very limited in terms of what we can have them do. But, you know, I think we have some great, very watchable, very entertaining challenge this season and I hope you like them.

Question: Did anyone quit this season?

Jeff Probst: Yes and no, and I'll leave that up to your own interpretation.

Question: What can you tell us about the first episode?

Jeff Probst: I'm trying to think of what I can say first. Um, Gabon is probably my favorite premiere episode in a long time. We get right into things pretty fast. The game starts this season with the contestants walking through a gorgeous valley called a cirque. They're divided into two tribes and then they have to hike to their camps. The hike is not a challenge like it was in All-Stars, but that's gonna set some people apart and give you a good idea of who could be a strong member of your tribe and, on the flip side, who's gonna be a weak member. A lot of the initial camp scenes focus on the survival aspect, but they're also trying to give you a feel for who some of the characters are. One of the characters you'll meet fairly early on is Ace, one of our villains this season, who tries to get his tribe to lie about something at the first challenge to gain a mental edge over Kota. And he's very good at manipulating. And the episode ends with a power struggle between a couple players on the losing tribe; you'll be surprised who it is, and that ends up putting a bunch of people in the middle as the key votes. It makes for a great ending to a great episode, topped off with an argument at Tribal, which I always love to watch, especially in the first episode. It should be a good premiere.

Question: Can you tell us anything about future seasons that are coming up?

Jeff Probst: Yeah, we just got renewed for two more seasons with CBS, 18 and 19, and we've already had some creative meetings to figure out what we want to do for those. For season 18, we're going back to 16 castaways. We already have our cast picked, and we're looking at what made Survivor so popular in the first place. So we're focusing more on the human element rather than the game and the strategy, and that's either gonna work out well or it could be a mistake. Obviously, you know, it's the Survivors themselves who make the show, but some people find that boring, so the key, and hopefully we'll come up with this before we start shooting next month, is gonna be balance between the two.

Jeff Probst: Season 19 is going to be something completely different than anything we've ever done in a lot of ways, and I'll leave it at that for now, but definitely more to come in the coming months. First we have to get through 17 and 18 and still be on the air!