Jeff Probst warns that Survivor 49 players will get a 'smack in the face from intense heat' (excl...

Even the host felt the effects while calling a challenge. Jeff Probst warns that Survivor 49 players will get a 'smack in the face from intense heat' (exclusive

Even the host felt the effects while calling a challenge.

Jeff Probst warns that Survivor 49 players will get a 'smack in the face from intense heat' (exclusive)

Even the host felt the effects while calling a challenge.

By Dalton Ross

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August 27, 2025 12:00 p.m. ET

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Jeremiah Ing, Nicole Mazullo, and Jeff Probst on 'Survivor 49'. Credit:

Robert Voets/CBS

Some like it hot and they sweat when the heat is on, international singing sensation Robert Palmer once opined while a member of 1980s super group The Power Station. But from the sound of things, the heat will be on the cast of *Survivor 49* when the season premieres Sept. 24 on CBS. And while they will definitely sweat, they may not like it.

That's all according to host and showrunner Jeff Probst, who spoke to ** about the oppressive real-feel temperatures in Fiji — temperatures that cannot be felt but, perhaps, seen in some exclusive season 49 photos staring at you from this very article. And Probst says the contestants were not the only ones impaired by the conditions.

"One thing that made this season a little unique is that it was extremely hot," Probst says. "And I know that might not sound like much given that a tropical environment is always hot, but I even felt it."

Jeff Probst on 'Survivor 49'.

Robert Voets/CBS

The always super fit host recognized he was a bit off his game thanks to Mother Nature. "It was just stifling, and the impact was noticeable and I could track it because *I *was struggling. I had challenges at the end where I was puffing and puffing and I was drenched through my shirt with sweat. And so I was able to, for the first time in a long time, have just a little bit of a reminder, 'Oh man, this is one of the elements that you can't overlook.'"

If he needed another reminder, it came from the players during an early visit to Tribal Council. "Right away, I think it's in the second or third Tribal Council, I asked a pretty basic question," recalls the host. "And the player can't answer it. They can't really formulate an answer."

That inability to think or properly function is a difficult thing to convey on screen but can affect the game in major ways. "I don't feel like we've ever done a good enough job at taking the viewer inside what that is really like. But if you think about it, we're only four or five days into the game, and already players are struggling to answer basic questions, and you put that in the context of this entire game — those early hot days have a big impact."

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But while the heat will lead to much suffering among the cast, it also caused something more surprising — humor. "One of the things I thought was interesting was how funny the players are this season," Probst notes. "They seemed much sassier and wittier once the game started. And I wondered if it was related at all to the heat. Does something happen where you are so beaten down so fast that your barriers and your boundaries break down even quicker?"

It's not like *Survivor* is about to turn into *An Evening at the Improv* or anything, but Probst says natural comedy will definitely be present at the tribe camps.

"There's a lot of funny people," he says about the cast, "and a lot of really revealing stories about personality and character and how they ended up on *Survivor* and where they came from. And we seem to get there very fast. When the premiere is over, I think you're going to like quite a few of these people. And I have a feeling it's directly related to the smack in the face they got from that intense heat in those first few days."

Jake Latimer on 'Survivor 49'.

Robert Voets/CBS

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*Survivor 49* will also follow the new-era trajectory of the franchise, in which small, incremental changes to the game mechanics are introduced as opposed to big sweeping twists and turns.

"I think the new era is still working," says the host. "And I know there is a tendency to think that we should put something new and big into the game, but we don't feel that way. We still think this format works. Yes, there are new wrinkles and we always try to bring a subtle twist or a new advantage, but it's why *Survivor* is still working, is this 25-year-long experiment about behavior."

And the host believes that experiment works best in baby steps. "If we're doing anything right, I think it's that we're moving the game as fast as it needs to move, but no faster. Sometimes I feel like the focus is on what's new and shiny, but it tends to go back to the people."

And, seemingly for *Survivor 49*, how boiling hot they are.

Original Article on Source

Source: "AOL TV"

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