'Survivor' host Jeff Probst explains why show stopped doing schoolyard picks to determine tribes

Yahoo

06-03-2025

One of the most dramatic and controversial moments in early Survivor history occurred on the second day of season 10, when the players of Survivor: Palau were told to divide themselves into two tribes via a classic schoolyard pick. The twist was that the last two players not picked — which turned out to be Jonathan Libby and Wanda Shirk — were immediately eliminated from the game.
Schoolyard picks were a semi-regular part of Survivor throughout the franchise's first 17 seasons. Sometimes, as on the Thailand and Gabon seasons, the initial tribes were determined by a schoolyard pick. On other seasons, such as The Amazon, Cook Islands, and Fiji, the picks occurred during mid-game tribe swaps. But there have been no schoolyard picks to determine tribes in the past 31 seasons, with Gabon (season 17) being the last one to take place. The most we get now is the occasional pick for a post-merge reward challenge.
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So would host and showrunner Jeff Probst ever consider going back to letting the players pick their own tribes? That was a question posed by a fan on the latest episode of the On Fire with Jeff Probst podcast.
'I like this question because schoolyard picks are fun,' Probst says on the podcast. 'But they are super risky because you are relying on the players to self-divide into somewhat even tribes.'
Okay, that is a legitimate concern. Just look at what happened on Palau, where the Koror tribe beat the sad sack Ulong team in every single immunity challenge until there was only one poor Ulong member left (Stephenie LaGrossa). While watching one tribe go all the way down to a single person was a unique thrill for the viewer at the time, it's not necessarily an exercise the host would like to repeat.
'From that standpoint, as a producer, it's a bit terrifying to start a season that way,' Probst says. 'And so you have to ask yourself: Okay, let's look at our own risk versus reward here. What do we get from starting a season that way? Well, it's a fun opening beat. What do we risk from starting a season that way? We could get terribly lopsided tribes.'
And Probst already anticipates what some fans would say to that. 'On the other hand, I know what you're thinking: We don't always do a good job of picking tribes ourselves. And we spend a lot of time analyzing the data — the IQ, the strength, the age, their puzzle ability. And we're looking at all different types of tribe formations and we still get it wrong.'
Related: Jeff Probst had no idea Survivor 48 was a much older cast
At this point, cohost Jay Wolff cuts in, asking, 'So what I hear you saying is there is a chance we could see a schoolyard pick for tribes.' And while Probst responds, 'There is a chance, yes' — the fact that he is laughing while saying it, coupled with 31 seasons of history speaking otherwise, tells us not to hold our collective breath.
To hear Probst and former Survivor champion Rachel LaMont break down the latest episode of Survivor 48, check out the On Fire with Jeff Probst podcast. Weigh in below, in the comments, if you would or would not like to see a return to the tribal schoolyard picks.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly