‘Survivor’ Host Jeff Probst on the Return of Bruce Perreault, the Auction and Another All-Star Season

Robert Voets/CBS ©2023 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The tribe will speak again.

Reality TV stalwart Survivor is back for its 45th season on CBS beginning Wednesday, Sept. 27, at 8pm ET/PT.

We got host Jeff Probst to give us the details on Survivor’s new season, which features longer episodes.

What will we see more of with the new 90-minute format?
Jeff Probst: We have been pitching CBS to let us try a season of 90-minute episodes for a few years now because we felt it was a sweet spot for us in terms of length. With 60-minute episodes, we always have to leave so much great material out of the episode. Ninety minutes allows us to show a lot more of the fun reality that goes on at tribe camps, the conversations I have with players before a challenge, and longer player interviews. We are also adding more game-related layers with more journeys, more risk/reward games, more rewards, things like that. I think fans are really going to enjoy it because the episodes can really breathe, and I think you’ll feel even more connected to the players and their stories.

Bruce Perreault, who had that head injury in last season’s first episode, is back. Why was it important to give him another shot?
We’re really happy that Bruce was able to come back! We don’t really see him as a returning player, as much as someone who is back to play for essentially the first time. He was injured 15 minutes into Day One, and it was downhill from there. I think everyone agreed it was very unfulfilling for him and for the fans. We knew we wanted Bruce back even as we were evacuating him to go get medical care; that’s how big an impact he made on us. We’re grateful he said yes, and now we can see him play the game on his terms and hopefully he’ll last longer than one day!

LET'S GOOOOOO!!!!

CBS Entertainment | Survivor | Bruce Perreault https://t.co/BiFH7aURIQ pic.twitter.com/q2d3KRCKpi

— Bruce Perreault (@Perrbruce) September 6, 2023

What can you tell us about the Survivor auction returning?
Yeah baby! The Survivor auction is back! We love the auction; we just felt it needed a refresh in order for it to have the kind of impact we need from it. So we gave it a break for a few years and then decided to dive in and brainstorm some ideas. We came up with a new approach that we really think is fun, and the players seemed to enjoy it too! Can’t wait for our audience to see it play out! Going, going, sold!

We have to keep asking, but when are you doing another all-star season?
We love returning-player seasons as much as the fans do! It’s really just a matter of always taking a big-picture view of where the show is and where we want to take it next. I think fans agree that we’ve met some amazing new players since our rebirth with Survivor 41. We have another fantastic group of new players in Survivor 45. But we will for sure be doing another returning-player season, and then the difficult decision will be who do we bring back? There are already so many fantastic second-chance stories!