Ever since Survivor first premiered, one person, host Jeff Probst, has seen as the face of the show.
As a result, Jeff has dealt with some backlash over the years.
For example, fans weren’t impressed that Jeff let Jimmy Fallon influence the worst Survivor season and Rupert Boneham claimed Jeff had corrupted the show.
On the other hand, fans all agree that Survivor has aired a slew of seasons that were great under Jeff’s watchful eyes.
Here are a few more reasons why Jeff is the most important reality TV host in reality TV history.
Jeff Probst Helped Survivor Change The Television Landscape
During the first season of Survivor, fans who tuned in didn’t know what to expect. Thankfully, Jeff was there to keep fans informed about the rules of the game. As a result, there is no doubt that Jeff played a key role in the first season’s success.
Before Survivor’s first season aired, there were other reality shows like Cops, The Real World, Road Rules, A Baby Story and Big Brother. While all those shows were successful, none of them really changed television in a lasting way.
Then, the first season of Survivor aired in the year 2000 and it became a titanic success. In fact, it is hard to explain how big of an event the first season’s finale was to modern viewers who are used to everyone being in their own television silos. The fact that Jeff played a key role in that success is one of the two main reasons why he is the most important reality TV host ever.
In December 2009, CBS News published an article looking at the most-watched TV episodes of the 2000s. According to that article, the finale episode of Survivor: Borneo, the first season of the show, was the second most watched TV episode of the 2000s.
What were the most watched TV episodes of the 2000s, according to CBS News?
| Show: | Episode: | Rank: |
|---|---|---|
| Spin City | Michael J. Fox’s Last Episode | #10 |
| Everybody Loves Raymond | The Series Finale | #9 |
| Frasier | The Seventh Season Finale | #8 |
| Who Wants to be a Millionaire | Three Episodes Grouped Together | #7 |
| Grey’s Anatomy | The Post-Superbowl Episode | #6 |
| American Idol | The Sixth Season Premiere | #5 |
| ER | Lucy Knight’s Death Episode | #4 |
| Joe Millionaire | The First Season Finale | #3 |
| Survivor: Borneo | The First Season Finale | #2 |
| Friends | The Series Finale | #1 |
While that is impressive enough, Survivor’s finale almost beat out the number one episode of the decade, which was the Friends finale. Survivor: Borneo’s finale was watched by 51.7 million people, and the Friends’ finale had 52.5 million viewers.
As the show’s host, Jeff was all over Survivor: Borneo’s finale as he hosted the final tribal council that was watched by more than 50 million people. The fact that 50 million people saw Jeff react to Sue Hawk’s wild speed arguably could be enough for him to be considered the most important reality show host of all time. However, there is a lot more than that.
When Survivor: The Australian Outback premiered, none of the players that fans cared about returned. Instead, the only person who appeared onscreen from the first season was Jeff. The fact that Survivor: The Australian Outback still became a huge hit shows that viewers had grown to trust Jeff.
Of course, CBS and Survivor’s producers must have been overjoyed that Jeff was able to shepherd fans in as they began to care about a whole new crop of players. More importantly, Jeff was able to help Survivor: The Australian Outback prove that the first season’s success wasn’t a fluke.
The fact that Survivor became a proven entity played a huge role in the existence of many of today’s popular reality shows.
In May 2015, The Washington Post published an article about how Survivor changed television forever. The article focused on the huge influence that Survivor had on television.
As The Washington Post stated, “the extreme success of the show officially led to an explosion in the reality TV genre as networks realized the potential gold mine of a programming that was cheaper to produce than scripted shows.”
These days, it seems like there are new reality TV shows premiering daily between networks, streaming services and the internet. However, before Survivor revealed that reality TV was a path that was paved in gold, that definitely wasn’t the case.
More importantly, aside from CBS previously airing Big Brother, none of the major networks had put their faith in reality TV until Survivor became a huge hit.
If it wasn’t for Survivor’s success, reality TV today as we know it may not exist.
Jeff Probst Paved The Way For Other Hosts When He Became Survivor‘s Showrunner
When Mark Burnett hired Jeff Probst to be a part of Survivor, he was only tapped to host the show. Jeff continued in that role for many years.
However, in 2010, Jeff became Survivor’s showrunner and executive producer, in addition to host.
In the film world, directors are the ones who have the most control on set. However, showrunners are the people who make the big decisions about television shows in tandem with the networks.
Throughout most of TV history, hosts had little to no control over the shows they were a part of. That is why it once was common for people to host multiple game shows at the same time or one after another.
With that in mind, it seems all but certain that when Jeff was hired, nobody expected him to take over the show. After all, even now, the vast majority of other reality TV hosts are expected to show up, say a few lines, and wait until the next taping to be told what to say next.
However, since Jeff has proven that a host can take control of their show and keep it going strong, there is no way to know what kind of opportunities his peers may get.
Since Jeff has yet again created a path for his peers to walk down, that is even more evidence of why he is the most important reality show host ever.