Brian Smith
2024-09-28 06:25:56 UTC
Trigger Warning!!!
________________________________________________________________________
Jeff Probst calls Survivor player's attempt to steal rice a 'mob boss move'
The host also reveals what it would take for "a very different side of
me" to come out.
By Dalton Ross
Published on September 26, 2024 07:00AM EDT
Survivor 47’s second episode included an epic immunity challenge where
teams had to transport a big bag of rice across both sea and land,
before cutting open the bag and retrieving a ball to use on a winding
snake trap.
But that epic challenge was overshadowed by an epic attempt by one of
the players to steal some of the rice in the challenge. While watching
three of her Gata tribemates attempt to navigate the aforementioned
snake trap, Rachel LaMont decided to make herself a little to-go bag… in
her pants! Which is to say she started subtly scooping up fistfuls of
rice and pouring them into her pocket in the hopes of transporting the
food back to camp to eat.
Unfortunately for the wannabe rice thief, host Jeff Probst had clearly
been tipped-off to the five-finger discount… which is what tends to
happen when you have a massive camera crew as well as numerous producers
on hand watching your every move. Probst made Rachel pour out all the
rice before leaving the challenge in an exchange that was one of the
highlights of the episode. However, on the latest episode of the On Fire
With Jeff Probst podcast, the host and showrunner reveals that the
entire incident almost did not even make it to air.
On the podcast, Probst says he was called by executive producer Matt Van
Wagenen, who mentioned that they wanted to add it into the final cut.
“And so I looked at it,” Probst says, “and my feeling was 100 percent,
because this is character. Rachel tried to steal rice in front of me, in
front of 20 camera operators, in front of the challenge department, all
our judges, in front of standards and practices, in front of all of our
producers. That's a mob boss move!”
Was Probst upset about the deception? On the contrary: “I respected it.”
Even if he’s not completely sure why she did it. “Who really knows the
real reason Rachel did that? Maybe it was just to get some rice, or
maybe Rachel did it to show another part of her personality. Maybe she
wanted people to know, ‘Hey, I'm not as quiet as you think’. And maybe
it's who Rachel really is. Maybe it's not Rachel at all, and she just
wants others to see that part of her because the game is always afoot.”
While Probst enjoyed both the effort on Rachel’s part and the exchange
that followed, there is another level of deception that will not be
tolerated. “I have to say one thing just for fans and players from a
producer standpoint,” Probst warns. “There's a very fine line when it
comes to having fun and messing with the integrity of the game. What
Rachel did was fun. It was playful. It was in front of everyone. She
knew what she was doing. She knew it was almost certain that she'd be
caught. And when she got caught, she had a very playful attitude about
it. So there was no issue at all with me regarding that moment.”
He continues: “But we have a couple of very clear rules about what is
and is not allowed. And if a player were to break one of those very few
rules, we'd have a very different situation and a very different side of
me comes out. And that goes back to our earlier chat about integrity. We
give the players an incredible amount of latitude to play their game
however they want. We just expect the same respect in return.”
But isn’t that taunting the starving players by putting all that rice
right in front of them and then not allowing them to have any of it? “I
am going to take it back to the challenge team and say, ‘If we don't
need rice, maybe we should consider sand or something else,’” concedes
the host. “This is not a time when we want to taunt them, and maybe
that's what ended up happening with Rachel.”
Whatever the reason, it made for great television, if not a great rice
heist.
To listen to Probst break down the entire episode — including the latest
elimination — check out On Fire With Jeff Probst.
https://ew.com/jeff-probst-survivor-player-steal-rice-mob-boss-move-8718644
________________________________________________________________________
Jeff Probst calls Survivor player's attempt to steal rice a 'mob boss move'
The host also reveals what it would take for "a very different side of
me" to come out.
By Dalton Ross
Published on September 26, 2024 07:00AM EDT
Survivor 47’s second episode included an epic immunity challenge where
teams had to transport a big bag of rice across both sea and land,
before cutting open the bag and retrieving a ball to use on a winding
snake trap.
But that epic challenge was overshadowed by an epic attempt by one of
the players to steal some of the rice in the challenge. While watching
three of her Gata tribemates attempt to navigate the aforementioned
snake trap, Rachel LaMont decided to make herself a little to-go bag… in
her pants! Which is to say she started subtly scooping up fistfuls of
rice and pouring them into her pocket in the hopes of transporting the
food back to camp to eat.
Unfortunately for the wannabe rice thief, host Jeff Probst had clearly
been tipped-off to the five-finger discount… which is what tends to
happen when you have a massive camera crew as well as numerous producers
on hand watching your every move. Probst made Rachel pour out all the
rice before leaving the challenge in an exchange that was one of the
highlights of the episode. However, on the latest episode of the On Fire
With Jeff Probst podcast, the host and showrunner reveals that the
entire incident almost did not even make it to air.
On the podcast, Probst says he was called by executive producer Matt Van
Wagenen, who mentioned that they wanted to add it into the final cut.
“And so I looked at it,” Probst says, “and my feeling was 100 percent,
because this is character. Rachel tried to steal rice in front of me, in
front of 20 camera operators, in front of the challenge department, all
our judges, in front of standards and practices, in front of all of our
producers. That's a mob boss move!”
Was Probst upset about the deception? On the contrary: “I respected it.”
Even if he’s not completely sure why she did it. “Who really knows the
real reason Rachel did that? Maybe it was just to get some rice, or
maybe Rachel did it to show another part of her personality. Maybe she
wanted people to know, ‘Hey, I'm not as quiet as you think’. And maybe
it's who Rachel really is. Maybe it's not Rachel at all, and she just
wants others to see that part of her because the game is always afoot.”
While Probst enjoyed both the effort on Rachel’s part and the exchange
that followed, there is another level of deception that will not be
tolerated. “I have to say one thing just for fans and players from a
producer standpoint,” Probst warns. “There's a very fine line when it
comes to having fun and messing with the integrity of the game. What
Rachel did was fun. It was playful. It was in front of everyone. She
knew what she was doing. She knew it was almost certain that she'd be
caught. And when she got caught, she had a very playful attitude about
it. So there was no issue at all with me regarding that moment.”
He continues: “But we have a couple of very clear rules about what is
and is not allowed. And if a player were to break one of those very few
rules, we'd have a very different situation and a very different side of
me comes out. And that goes back to our earlier chat about integrity. We
give the players an incredible amount of latitude to play their game
however they want. We just expect the same respect in return.”
But isn’t that taunting the starving players by putting all that rice
right in front of them and then not allowing them to have any of it? “I
am going to take it back to the challenge team and say, ‘If we don't
need rice, maybe we should consider sand or something else,’” concedes
the host. “This is not a time when we want to taunt them, and maybe
that's what ended up happening with Rachel.”
Whatever the reason, it made for great television, if not a great rice
heist.
To listen to Probst break down the entire episode — including the latest
elimination — check out On Fire With Jeff Probst.
https://ew.com/jeff-probst-survivor-player-steal-rice-mob-boss-move-8718644
--
Brian
Brian