‘Survivor’ 49: Jeff Probst Teases Cast ‘Losing Their Minds’ in Premiere Sneak Peek (VIDEO)

Kelli Boyle September 19, 2025, 11:25 am

Survivor Wednesdays are back. After CBS debuted the first-ever Survivor Influencer Experience episode on September 18, TV Insider is sharing a behind-the-scenes look at the filming of Jeff Probst‘s Survivor 49 intro. In the exclusive video above, the host prepares to deliver his opening line as the Survivor crew sets up the shot. A drone circles around Probst and pans back to show the marooning beach as he yells, “This is Survivor 49!”

“Survivor 49 started with heat. Heat, heat, heat,” Probst stresses in the clip. “It just wears you down.” Probst previously told TV Insider that an “oppressive heat” plagued the first 10-15 days of gameplay this season. It was so hot in Fiji, even the host couldn’t conceal his exhaustion on camera. You see him keel over to catch his breath in the behind-the-scenes video. He also says the heat made the Survivor 49 cast deliriously funny.

“This is extremely hard. We’re struggling out here,” castaway Sophi, an entrepreneur, tells the camera. Jawan, a video editor, adds, “I smell gross,” and he can’t imagine what he’ll smell like on day 26. He jokes to the crew behind the camera that they’ll want to keep their distance from him.

One player is embracing the awfulness. “One thing that the military did teach me is [to] embrace the suck,” contestant Sage, a clinical social worker, says. “So when things are extra sucky, I’m extra happy.” That’s one way to handle it.

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“There was a correlation between how hot it was and them kind of losing their minds,” Probst says as clips of players playing in the ocean and falling in the jungle roll. Rizo, who calls himself the “Rizgod,” then appears crying and saying, “I wish I could hug myself, but that’s weird.”

This is a cast full of big personalities that only get bigger, louder, and more fun as the heat rages on. It’s not all joking around, though. Kristina, Jake, Rizo, and more players share some meaningful personal stories. Jake, for example, talks about how he left his pregnant wife at home to try to win $1 million for their growing family.

Check out the full BTS video above to see Probst talk about the Survivor 50 casting process that was still ongoing during the filming of 49. The host calls this season “unique.”

“It starts off very tough, and it ends very unpredictable,” he says. “And in between, you have this mesh of people come together and having to figure it out, and you’re going to be guessing all along, who are the two players that are going to end up on 50?” As Probst told us, that mystery might be easier to solve after the merge.

Survivor, Season 49 Premiere, Wednesday, September 24, 8/7c, CBS