Jeff Probst Reveals ‘Survivor 51’ Twist Adding Millions to Prize Money Indefinitely

Rick Devens is going to love hearing about this once he finally leaves the Big Brother house. Jeff Probst has revealed a Survivor 51 twist that could add millions of dollars to the prize money for the foreseeable future. The coin flip from Survivor 50 is coming back, but with a twist.

The coin flip twist was introduced in Season 50 by YouTuber MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson). The parameters were simple, but game-changing. At Tribal Council, one player could flip a coin to not only win individual immunity for the night, but also add $1 million to the grand prize at the end of the season. If the player lost the coin toss, they would be voted out. Devens took on the first coin toss challenge and won, saving himself from elimination. Aubry Bracco went on to win the $2 million.

Survivor rarely increases the prize money, but it has on a few occasions. But in The Open Era, kicking off with Season 51 (premiering Wednesday, September 23), millions of more dollars in winnings are on the table each season now that the coin toss will continuously return.

If the player calls the right face of the coin, they’re safe from elimination and add $1 million to the preexisting $1 million prize. If they lose, they’re out of the game, but the extra $1 million gets added to the next season’s prize pot. This will continue in the subsequent seasons, with the prize money increasingly compounding. This means that we could see a prize pot as high as $3 million or more in future Survivor seasons. Probst confirmed that this coin toss twist is in Survivor 51.

‘Survivor 51’ cast in ‘Survivor 51’ premiere (Robert Voets/CBS)

“One of the things of the Open Era is you can take any idea you’ve ever done and put it back into the show. You can also take an idea you’ve done, put it back into the show with a twist. So we took an idea from 50, this idea of a million dollar coin flip,” Probst told The Hollywood Reporter. “We said, ‘What if we put that in the show every season? And every season, one player gets to flip a coin, and if you call it correctly, we’ll add a million dollars to the pot for that season.'”

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“In Survivor 51, at some point, a player’s going to flip a coin for $1 million dollars,” Probst continued. “If they land it, the prize pool will be $2 million for 51. If they don’t land it, that million dollars will go into Survivor 52 and somebody will flip a $2 million coin making the prize money $3 million. And if that doesn’t land, it’ll go into 53. It will go until it pays off and then it’ll start again.”

“I think it’s the most innovative twist in prize money in the history of unscripted television, because that million dollars is a living, breathing thing,” Probst said. “And the question is, where is it going to land and how many of them will there be when it does land?”

Probst said that this kind of opportunity for change is one of the thrilling parts of The Open Era. Starting with 51, every twist and advantage in Survivor history could come back into the game at any time. It doesn’t mean that every twist and advantage ever will be in Season 51, but rather that there is now no way to predict things such as what kind of power an immunity idol will have.

“That [coin toss] twist is really fun,” Probst shared. “Imagine where it could go. It could pay off every season and suddenly it’s $2 million every season. It could not pay off for three or four seasons and suddenly somebody’s flipping a coin for three or $4 million.”

You’ve caught our attention.

Survivor 51, Premieres Wednesday, 8/7c, CBS