Jeff Probst Had An All-Time Live TV Fuck Up & Spoiled An Elimination On Survivor Finale

Dominik Bindl. Getty Images.

Jeff Probst is the best game show host ever. He does an incredible job hosting my favorite reality show Survivor.

But, boy did he fuck up tonight.

The season finale tonight was cutting back and forth between a live reunion special and the taped footage from Fiji. A risky and seemingly needless move considering for decades, they only hit the live element after the taped portion was concluded.

Not today, though!

The taped footage got us all ready to watch a fire-making showdown between Rizo and Jonathan. It had spent the last 15 minutes of the episode setting up this emotional duel…and then this happened.

The legend that is (was?) Jeff Probst owned it and had fun with it the rest of the live show. What else can you do, I guess?

I saw some chatter online that people think he should be fired for this. First, he's the showrunner. I don't think he's canning himself. Secondly, he's a great host. He does an awesome job with Survivor and is a huge reason why I love this show so much. He's still only 65 (not bad for a show with 50 seasons) and seems to have a lot of love for the show. Part of the reason this was so shocking to longtime Survivor fans was because Jeff so rarely makes a mistake. 

It also wasn't the end of the world. He revealed who was coming in 4th place 10 minutes before we saw it ourselves. Wild mistake to make in a show you'd think would be so heavily rehearsed and figured out. But also, no one died.

I'd say this fuckup proves that they should do MORE live reunion specials. Live TV is awesome. Mistakes are exciting. Network TV seems more buttoned up and risk-averse than ever before. This was a fun moment that people will be talking about at the office tomorrow. That's a good thing for the cultural relevance of a show entering it's 51st season.

I love Survivor and love Jeff Probst so I'm far from an unbiased observer here. This was Survivor fans "La La Land wins best picture" moment. That's a lot of people's favorite recent non-slap Oscar moment.

Just because something gets fucked up doesn't necessarily make it a bad thing.