Jeff Probst says Survivor diversity approach is unchanged
Survivor will keep casting the way it has in recent seasons, host and executive producer Jeff Probst says.
He told The New York Times that "nothing has changed" in the show's approach to diversity, equity and inclusion, policies intended to widen representation on screen and in staffing, according to Deadline reporting on 27 September. Probst called diversity "one of the biggest positive changes ever" for Survivor, which launched on CBS in 2000.
According to that same report, Paramount introduced a DEI initiative in 2020 to make CBS and its other brands more inclusive. It later rolled that initiative back after Donald Trump's re-election amid attacks by the Trump administration on such programmes. Skydance, while seeking approval from the Federal Communications Commission, the US regulator that clears broadcast mergers, for its merger with Paramount, pledged there would be no DEI policies.
The show's casting history gives the remark context. CBS ordered Survivor to be more inclusive, an order Probst said he welcomed, as reported by Deadline in April 2024. He had earlier said the broadcaster's diversity casting pledge forever changed the series and that production had hit a "casting jackpot" with a wider pool of players, in comments reported by Entertainment Weekly in September 2022.
Probst has steered the series through disruption before. In a July 2020 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he discussed the future of the internationally shot series during the pandemic and the safety concerns around filming abroad. Production paused, then resumed. The series kept its place in the CBS schedule.
The current set-up is steady, according to the September report. Casting is led by Jesse Tannenbaum, who runs the show's casting team. Probst is returning to host Season 51. Season 51 airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CBS and streams live on Paramount+.
Probst also looked ahead to the milestone Season 50 earlier this year, discussing casting secrets in a January interview with The Hollywood Reporter. That season was then slated to premiere in February.
For fans, this means the Wednesday slot feels familiar. Same process. Same casting priorities. The company language has shifted, but Probst says the search for players has not.
