While Survivor was far from the world’s first “reality” show, there is no doubt that its incredible level of popularity led to the genre taking over the television landscape for many years. Due to the fact that Survivor contestants come and go, there is one person who is most closely identified with the show, host and executive producer Jeff Probst.
Almost 60-years-old at the time of this writing, Jeff Probst has been a television mainstay for two decades at this point. For that reason, a lot is known about the man’s career and life over the last several years. However, many aspects of Jeff’s ascent to stardom and efforts to take his career to another level are still a mystery to most. With that in mind, it is time to get to this list of 15 lesser-known facts about Jeff Probst’s rise to fame.
15 Tough Competition
Even though Survivor has been a mainstay of television for 20 years, before the show debuted nobody knew if it would be a success or not. Despite that, during an interview with Archive of American Television, Jeff Probst revealed that he was far from the only one who wanted the Survivor hosting job. In fact, The Amazing Race’s host Phil Keoghan was in serious contention to take over the hosting responsibilities.
14 First Job
Long before Jeff Probst served up disgusting food for Survivor contestants to force down their throat for the first time, he already was a part of the service industry. After all, when Probst was only 15 he told a restaurant manager he was a year older so he could get a $2.20 an hour job busing tables.
13 Unique FX Show
Already an experienced host by the time he landed his Survivor role, in the mid-90s Jeff Probst starred in an FX show called Backchat. Dedicated to answering viewer letters, as the host of Backchat, Probst would read aloud the writings of the network’s fans and do his best to respond.
12 Not Quite Trebek
Definitely among the most successful game shows of all time, Jeopardy! has been a TV mainstay for decades and it is nearly impossible to imagine anyone but Alex Trebek hosting it. However, from 1998 until 2001, Jeff Probst helmed the spin-off show Rock & Roll Jeopardy! and did a marvelous job too.
11 Demo Reel
During a 2017 appearance on The Tonight Show, Jeff Probst revealed to the world that he put together a demo reel that he sent to Mark Burnett in an attempt to get the Survivor hosting job. Eventually hired for the role, based on the fact that the video started with a Ken doll introducing the clips to come and a lot of the footage was quite embarrassing, the reel couldn’t have helped.
10 Lucky Break
When it comes to getting the most out of life, there is no denying that luck can make all the difference in the world. For example, when Jeff Probst only had $8,000 left in his bank account and no jobs on the horizon, he was listening to the radio and heard Mark Burnett talking about his concept for Survivor. As a result of finding out about Survivor before most of his peers, Probst was the first potential host to interview for the job.
9 Perfect Perspective
In his role as Survivor host, executive producer, and showrunner, Jeff Probst spends four months on location away from his loved ones every year. When you combine that idea with the sometimes extreme weather he has to cope with on location, it could be argued that he has a tough gig. Instead, when he was asked about his work for a CBS article, Probst said it isn’t hard and he has “the greatest job on television”.
8 Hail Mary
During the Survivor host audition process, Jeff Probst felt hopeless at one point. Unwilling to give up on the job that he wanted so badly, Probst went to the bother of mocking up a series of fake newspaper articles talking about his role in Survivor’s success. Thankfully for Probst, Mark Burnett was impressed by the fake articles as he had done something similar when he pitched Survivor to CBS.
7 Unusual Entertainment Debut
From a young age, Jeff Probst knew that he wanted to make his living in the entertainment industry. As a result, when he graduated from Seattle Pacific University he got a job, albeit a strange one, in the moviemaking industry. Hired by Boeing, it was Probst’s job to narrate and produce marketing videos for the company.
6 Catchphrase Conundrum
Since Jeff Probst’s most famous line is “the tribe has spoken”, we wonder how far his career would’ve gone if he never said that. As it turns out, two days before the filming of Survivor’s first season began, he still hadn’t come up with his trademark line. Worried about what to say after snuffing the torch, Probst approached series creator Mark Burnet who uttered Survivor’s most famous line and Jeff ran with it.
