#33: JEFF PROBST Shares His Passion For "Survivor" and the TV He Loves

JEFF PROBST Shares His Passion For "Survivor" and the TV He Loves

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
Hey, where's the remote? It's time for TV Topics, where
those who love television discuss the series and
performances that should be on your radar.
Hello and welcome to TV Topics. This is your host, Stephen
Prusakowski. I'm an entertainment journalist
and a critic with a lifelong love of television.
Over the last decade, I've been conducting interviews with

(00:24):
hundreds of TV's most talented celebrities, including Dick Van
Dyke, Natalie Portman, Bryan Cran, Branson, and so many more.
After speaking with them, I often found myself wondering
what are they watching on TV? So I started this podcast to
find out the answer to that question.
Each episode is dedicated to oneguest.
They sit down with me to discussthe TV they love, plus how it
helped to shape them and their careers.

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Today, my guest is the great Jeff Probst.
If you watch television, you know Survivor.
And if you know Survivor, then you know Jeff Probst because
he's been the host for 25 years.Jeff was my first non actor
guest, which had me curious justhow well this would go.
The answer to that exceptional Jeff's passion for good TV runs
deep, maybe almost as deep as his passion for Survivor.

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The conversation led to some of my favorite answers to date.
My only regret? Not having more time with him.
So snuff out your torch, grab a seat on the TV topics couch and
enjoy my conversation with Jeff Probst.
Hey, this is Jeff Probst, and today I'm hanging out with
Steven Prusakowski on TV Topics.Excellent.
So we're going to get into your two plus decades of work on

(01:30):
Survivor in just a few minutes. But first let's talk some TV
topics. Remember, there's no pressure,
there are no right or wrong answers.
It's all just a bit of fun. So looking back over the years,
what has your relationship with television been?
Are you ATV junkie who watches everything?
You're very selective. Do you have go to shows?
I wasn't ATV junkie, but it did have an influence on me.

(01:50):
Johnny Carson was probably the biggest influence and it's what
persuaded me to work hard to getmy parents to give me ATV
because they didn't want me to have ATV in my bedroom.
But I got a little little TV andI would watch him and I didn't
really understand what it was I was studying, but I always
remember thinking, what is he doing first?

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Because I wasn't like a comedianor a joke guy.
But I loved how Johnny Carson would walk out and say, well,
today in Burbank, and he would tell you some story that
happened. And then it's also just a
childhood memory of when my mom would let me come home sick from
school and we would watch The Brady Bunch or something, and I
would bond with her in that way.So I love TVI love storytelling,

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but I don't watch everything. Did you have a prime time show?
One that was your first one you remember really loving that no
matter how good or how bad it was, it was your show A. 100%
NYPD Blue. Nice choice.
Galvanized me. That was when I first realized I
like storytelling. I was riveted by it.
In fact, I got a meeting througha friend to meet Meredith Steam,

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who at the time was a writer producer on NYPD Blue.
I couldn't believe I was in her office.
I couldn't believe this was someone who was actually writing
this show that I couldn't get enough of.
And when I left her office, I didn't have any career or
anything, but I knew that's whatI want to do.
I didn't know what form it wouldtake or that it would lead lead
to survival, but I knew I wantedto tell stories.

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Wow, that's incredible. So when it comes to NYPD Blue,
was that something you watched as a family or was it something
you watched alone? No, we watched as a my parents
watched that. I would rewatch it.
I mean, I really did. I, you know, because you
remember, like the camera work was so innovative at the time.
It felt like they were really inthe police precinct and finding

(03:38):
the shot and everything. And it ironically, it's kind of
a very familiar feeling on Survivor where we are often
finding the shot. So I think the bread crumbs of
that are even, you know, still in the the kind of show I'm
working on today. It's always amazing when you see
the influences of television on people and how it continues

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years later. Those influences don't
disappear, they stick with you forever and they shape who you
are and and the work that you do.
It's true, and you don't always know that.
In fact, you probably never knowthat our kids are both in the
arts and I'm I'm aware of thingsthat are impacting them, but I
just, until you said that, I didn't think it may always
impact you. You may actually be building the

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foundation of what's going to help you sprout to whatever you
end up doing. I think television always got a
bad rap, as if it had no value. But used properly it's a great
tool. In addition to entertaining, it
helps create empathy. It takes you to places you've
never been. It helped you think bigger.
It puts you in other people's shoes.
I was just telling somebody recently you need to watch more

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televisions. As funny as it sounds, you need
to watch more films because you'll understand the world
differently. You can't learn about people
just in textbooks. You have to explore.
If you can't get out there and do it.
TV is a great way, especially ifyou watch the right shows.
Agreed. What about shows that make you
laugh? Is there a go to show when he

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uses a pick me up? There's a few, but I think my go
to guy is Danny McBride. I I just everything from
righteous gemstones to eastbounddown to what anything he does, I
can't stop laughing and and it makes me feel good.
There's something about his selfdeprecating, you know, a sense

(05:25):
of humor that makes me feel better about myself.
Well, let you know he's an idiot.
So I mean, I'm not that big, at least I'm not as big an idiot as
the guy at Eastbound down type of thing.
But I really like that I'm not abig comedy guy.
I'm not a sitcom, traditional sitcom joke sort of thing.
Obviously I love South Park. I'm super happy it's back on and

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I the ability of those guys to shred anyone at any time with
the sharpness of, you know, these great tools they have is
really fun. But yeah, I'd say, I'd say right
now it's it's McBride and the South Park guys.
And I think, what else? If there's something I go to
that makes me laugh, oh I Schitt's Creek, I will watch.

(06:10):
Yes. My wife and I will go to bed and
just pick an episode of Schitt'sCreek.
We, we, we devoured that show and we're so sad when the
episode would end and you'd be like and wait again.
Yeah, the amazing chemistry between those two comedy
legends. And then you bring in the kids
and you think, how could they compare?
But it's like everybody on screen at any time is comedy

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gold. It really isn't.
It's so shows like, I mean like Seinfeld.
I'll put on any episode of Seinfeld anytime.
I don't need any set up, even ifI don't know the episode, but
it's that same thing. Could you recreate that show?
I don't think so. It was that chemistry and that's
how we felt with Schitt's Creek.What was fun about Schitt's
Creek is we found it, It had already been on, and then it

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ended up on another network. I can't remember the story, but
it came back. That's when we found it.
And then, much like somebody whodiscovers Survivor, you go,
wait, there are seasons before this one that I get to go enjoy.
So that was really fun. Yeah, I started watching
Survivor personally. On day one.
We had a big party, or it was mysister.
She had a big party for the final tribal council, and it was

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a huge party, probably like 30 people.
Wow. Since then, you know, decades
later, I have kids. I don't recall what season it
was, but I started watching it with them and they're smart
kids, strategic, they like gamesand they're they're thinkers.
So they really got into it. So we're watching it and they're
discussing strategies, who's doing what's right, who's doing

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what's wrong, really just getting into the game.
When we finished the first season, they watched and then
they were like, oh, wait, we want to watch more.
So we went back, we started watching some of the very early
seasons and it just doesn't age.The core of the show, you know,
it's, it's, it's about human interaction and human humanity
and the game strategy. It's timeless.

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It's amazing. You're what, 48 seasons and
going on 49? And it just doesn't grow old.
Well, you know, I think you're hitting on one of the things
we've done right is we have never messed with the format.
We never nudge a story, we nevernudge a player.
But don't you really think this,or wouldn't you rather do that?
We stay out of the way. We we set up the show ahead of

(08:23):
time. Here are the advantages of the
twist or whatever, but then we turn it over to the players.
And that trust is what makes it work because it's their show.
And what makes it unique is thatit's their decisions that you're
going to watch. That's what your kids are
picking up on. And it makes you say, you know,
what would I do in the same situation?

(08:43):
Yeah, yeah, it's, that's exactlyit.
And obviously I'm older than my daughters and I'm processing it
in my way and they're processingit in their own way.
And there's decades between us yet we can all sit down and
enjoy it. And just before every tribal
council, I always pause the showto say, who's going home, Who do
you want to go home and who's going home?
It's like our own little tribal council.

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We all plead our case, the reasons why we want someone to
stay or someone to go. And sometimes we'll even
convince the others to change their minds.
There's really no other show like it at our house.
And because it's based in like, human interaction in the social
game, and yet there's also the strategic part of the of the
game and the physical part of the game, it just never gets
old. I think in 50 years you'll still

(09:25):
be able to watch these episodes as if nothing's changed.
You're hitting on something else, which is we have one of
the maybe the widest ranging audience of any show on TV, You
know, from 7 to 77. We just lost beautiful woman
Sueta, who was 104, never missedSurvivor.
That means she started watching when she was 80.

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I mean that that and she enjoyedit in the same way that a young
5th grader discovers Survivor and says, wait a second, I
you're telling me I could go live in a jungle running these
challenges and lie to each otherand try to out.
There's so many elements about Survivor and it's so easy to get
into because every season is a stand alone.

(10:07):
You don't, you don't have to know any history.
It's always new. So just pick any season.
And I love nothing more than when I meet somebody and they
go, Oh my God, I just discoveredSurvivor.
What are the best seasons I should watch?
And then you can say, well, you can start with heroes versus
villains. We got this guy Tony, we got
this other guy Coach. And it's just the legacy is so
good. And the show is always evolving,
so it's always slightly different each season.

(10:31):
Exactly. Well, I'll get into Survivor in
just a little bit, but I have one more TV topics question for
now. We talked about laughing.
What about crying? What's the most recent TV show
or moment that made you cry? Yeah, I'm trying to think what
would make me cry or what has made me cry recently.

(10:51):
It's a good question. You're catching me off guard.
What if I cry? Because I do cry.
I'm drawing a blank, but I'm moved.
Yeah, I'm what? I mean, I am moved when I watch
shows. I'm not.
My wife is a little more. That was interesting.
I'm, I'm, I get caught up in theproof of the fiction that I'm

(11:15):
watching. You know, it's weird.
I'll come back. I'll keep thinking about it.
I think it's important. If you could turn off the rest
of the world and you can put yourself in these people's
shoes, then they did something right.
There's something working there and you know, it's a, it's a
different level of experience. If you could tap into those
emotions and there's really something special going on
there. I'll tell you a show that that

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really got me was The Shield andthe last Walton Goggins last
scene, his last conversation with his sort of partner
Victoria. You're nodding your head.
He's at a phone booth. And I, I knew Walton, know
Walton a little bit and I would,I texted him.
I said that that is one of the single greatest scenes I have
ever seen on television. And it's everything you talked

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about earlier about what TV is and what it can bring out of
you. And I could, I could probably
tell you half the things he saidin that scene.
And it's not like I rewatched it.
It was embedded in me that my former friend who I'm on a
leverage right now is telling meI just betrayed.
He already betrayed me. Like, there's the guts that was
coming out of Walton as he's banging his, he's banging the

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phone on the phone booth receiver because he knows his
life is over. It was amazing.
Yeah, yeah. I spoke with Walton about that.
It was an interview about something else.
Before I could even ask a question, I said I need to start
with this. I told him how it was one of the
best seasons and one of the bestlast couple of episodes,
especially how it all wrapped up.

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Just such powerful television. It was gut wrenching and
watching these people you despised at the time.
But then you're like, this is still a person, you understand.
He feels betrayed. He's betrayed others.
Oh yeah, that's another upsetting moment.
When he betrayed Len, that just gutted me.
There's just so much in that show, and it's such an amazing

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show. It really doesn't get brought up
enough. I agree it's it's it's one of my
all time greats. I just started re watching it.
I'm on episode 5 of season 1. Oh fantastic.
Lucky you. Yeah, I would love to watch it
again. It is one of my favorite as
well. Yeah, yeah.
So getting into Survivor, you know, I've watched every season
like I said, but 48 was one of the best.

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It was just one of my favouritesand I hear a lot of people say
it. My daughter said it, people
online are saying it, my some colleagues in the industry were
saying it. Why do you think people were
reacting to this season so strongly?
No, no, I feel the same. And I can tell you just from the
producer hat, I knew as it was unfolding, it was magical.

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It's my opinion. Obviously, there are people
online that will say 48 sucked. It was so boring.
You know, you can't please everybody, but it goes back to
the same thing. Stay out of the way.
It just let the show be and let it live and burst.
And that's why I said earlier, Ithink one of the best things

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we've ever done is we've never messed with the format.
We've had twists and things, butthey're within the box of
Survivor. But what we always do is we let
the players dictate. Who are you going to keep?
Why are you going to keep them? Who are you going to get rid of?
How are they going to come back to haunt you?
Who are you going to vote for the winner?
We have no say in that. So every every season is this
kind of a journey. And as a producer, you have to

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come to terms with the fact thatyou can't write the ending you
want. You can't determine the player
you'd like to represent your season as a winner.
You have to just say, put on a bunch of people that we really
invested in and we like, and let's see what they do.
And then these things happen. Like there was a monumental
moment in Survivor 48 between this young woman, Eva, and this

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firefighter Joe, that transcendsany show or game or anything.
And you don't have to be a Survivor fan, but if you've not
seen that scene, you got to go find it and watch it because it
will change you as a human and it will remind you we ought to
take care of each other when somebody's in need.
Get over your crap and just say I'm here for you.

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How can I help you? That's what happened.
And I was lucky enough to be a witness to it and smart enough
to stay out of the way. They got it.
We'll just keep shooting. Yeah, I thought it was a
beautiful moment. It was just so raw and so just
so powerful. And you're often very stoic and
you you hide your feelings aboutwhat's going on.

(15:35):
But you were getting choked up. And seeing that made a kick in
even more. And I was wondering, what was it
about that moment for you personally watching that and
having those emotions take over?As I stated, I was watching with
my daughters. So I'm in tears.
My wife is in tears. My daughters are kind of looking
at us like, what's wrong with you guys?
But I hope my kids have those moments like with Joe.

(15:58):
There you go. And they're out there looking
out for other people, not just themselves, and taking care of
people. And just because it happened on
the reality show, it doesn't make it any less.
Yeah, it's kind of like a wake up call.
Like, you can do this. We can be good people again.
I'm. Going to put an asterisk, an
asterisk in something you just said.
Watching it on a reality show doesn't make it any difference.

(16:19):
Different. I think that's a stigma that
still lingers. Survivor is an unscripted, very
messy, unpredictable, real, raw show shot in the jungle, no
second takes. We don't ever encourage people
what to say or what to do. So when people say, oh, it's a

(16:39):
reality show, go, you don't watch it.
If you watched it, you would sayit's like you said earlier, it's
a study of human behavior. It's a lot of things, but that
moment, the, the reason that moment got to me is the same as
you were alluding to. When you're a parent, you see
the world in a certain way. And I'm watching this young
woman thinking, Oh my gosh, her parents are going to like, you

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know, be so worried about her knowing this happened.
And here's this hero who's goingto come in and what was
happening for me that we didn't show as it started happening.
I'm looking into the jungle off camera.
My camera's here. I'm looking this way, talking to
myself, going hold it together. You got a job to do, hold it

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together. Because I was losing it already.
And then I thought I'd held it together.
So now I'm ready. I'm ready, OK.
I feel like I know I should contribute now.
I think I know where to take theshow.
I've got an idea in my head structurally of how to end this
moment. And then I say the word.
There's a young boy or girl who's saying to his parents or

(17:44):
her parents. And the minute I said parents
couldn't control it because I just saw myself in that
situation and there was never a question of whether we should
leave it in the show. It's not the prettiest cry, you
know, It's hard for me to watch it because I sound drunk.
But that's my that was my real true Jeff Propst feeling.

(18:05):
And I think sometimes people getconfused because I'm not playing
a character on Survivor. That's me.
That's how I feel, that's how I talk.
I'm from Kansas. My grammar's not always the
greatest. We leave it in all the fixings.
Whatever I might say, that's howI speak.
So I try to hold myself accountable in the same way we
hold the players. And this is one of those moments
where approach, you got to let it live.
It's going to be ugly, but it's got to be there.

(18:28):
Yeah, you're getting me a littlebit emotional right now, even
just hearing me say that. And by the way, when I said
reality TVI meant TV based in reality.
Because I agree. No, I didn't take offense.
Yeah. Yeah, it's not a term that
people typically speak of when you're talking about highly of
something, but survivors are a thing of itself.
It always has been and that's why it's around 49 seasons

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later. You know, you know, what's
interesting is I think we're theoutlier.
Even though we were the first, no shows followed in our
footsteps. Today's most popular shows are
big and they have spectacle and they have shiny floors and great
costumes or a manner or whatever, and they're incredibly
well produced. I mean, they're really fun.

(19:11):
They're entertaining. I see why people dig them, but
they're different from us. We're still that show sitting
out in the jungle going the tribe is spoken.
There's so many shows that are out there now that just feel
overproduced. I mean, there's a few shows I
started watching and I enjoy them, but I don't really
consider it reality. It's when you have that amount

(19:34):
of production put into it. What I love about Survivor is
you turn it on and it's like you're hanging out with a group
of people. You're on the island with them
and there's no one telling you what to think or who to like.
And often people disagree. You have your favorite eye of
mine. You're happy with the winner.
I'm disappointed with the winner.
My brother's another person who watches it and we always call
each other up the next day to say, hey, will you happy?

(19:56):
And we have this big hour long discussion about why the person
should have won, shouldn't have won.
I think I love discussing it just as much as I love watching
it. There's something special about
the show. I love that.
So if you had the chance to go on the show and play it
unrecognized, would you? And how do you think you would
do? No one's ever posted to me
unrecognized. That changes everything.

(20:18):
Yes, then I would. I would love to.
And I feel caught. Like every survivor who applies,
I too feel confident that my social skills would hang me in
long enough that I got a shot. I think I know when to pop my
head up and when to stay out of the way.
My tongue and my impatience at certain times would probably be

(20:43):
my biggest, you know, Achilles heel.
Because at some point I'm going to say no.
You have told me that story 4 times and let me help you with
how to structure that a little or something.
But yeah, no one's ever asked itto me that way.
I'd love to do it. Because what you don't realize
until you're actually playing, just to use an example, but as a

(21:04):
metaphor, that wall you're climbing up, it is 12 feet.
You do have to figure out how toget to the top of it.
You are covered in mud. You will slip, and you're
panicking that you're not physical enough to get up there.
And that's messing with you in the adrenaline is coursing
through your body. Well, that physical challenge
you're trying to accomplish is also the metaphor for the entire

(21:27):
experience. The storm is coming.
You're going to get wet 100% andthere will be bugs all over you
in the morning and you're going to bites it.
You didn't know where they came from.
I don't know. I forgot to tell you there isn't
a bag of food that we don't tellpeople about.
There is no food. The water you got to go get from
the well. And while you're gone, these
people are going to conspire against you and try to vote you

(21:49):
out. That's Survivor.
And that's why people when they get out there say, Oh my God,
it's more than I thought. And then they go, Oh my God,
it's more than I thought. It's everything I hoped.
And that's what continues to make Survivor work, is that it's
a real experience that I wish everybody could have.

(22:11):
Because you'd find you're betterthan you thought or as good as
you hoped. You might not win, you might not
last every day, but I bet you got more in your tank than you
think because we're rarely tested in that way.
Man, that's awesome. I'd love to be a contestant.
I always want to do it, but my daughter say no, they don't want
me doing it for some reason. But I think it could do pretty
well if I didn't open my mouth too much.

(22:32):
I like to use humor a lot and I don't know if it's play very
well because some people just aren't on my wavelength and if
people aren't seeing the humor then I'm in trouble.
A little bit more about this question.
If you get to play the game unrecognized, would you play a
more cutthroat game or do you think you play a loyal game
well? That's a subjective term because

(22:54):
I think the way I would play is loyal with a degree of
cutthroat. I think you have to.
I think I'd have to be honest and say, look, you and I are
either going to go to the end together or one of them is going
to take each other out. The threat I'm going to hold
over your head is that if I'm onthe jury and you're in the final
and you've done something that Ithink is outside our

(23:15):
arrangement, you'll never get myvote.
So I'm just telling you, let's work together.
I'm not saying you always got tostay with me.
I would play a little Tony Soprano in there of I will hurt
you in the end if you mess with me.
And then I would try my best to take you out before you Take Me
Out and I kind of get to the endand then I'll figure out how to
win. I already realized in this

(23:35):
answer that you just asked me the question.
It would suck at survival. It'd be terrible because I'm
already regretting what I just said.
I want to go back and rewind andrewrite and hit delete so I
don't know how I'd do, but yes Iwould do it.
If I could do it unrecognizable I would absolutely play.
I mean, it all depends on on theoutside looking in, not what

(23:56):
you're seeing on the inside, butwhat they're seeing.
It's what you're projecting. Do they believe you?
Do they trust you? Totally?
If you're that person that's already looking for the idol on
minute one, there's a good chance you're probably not going
to last too long. And yet, and yet we've had
players. One of our players that would be
on the Mount Rushmore of Survivor is Tony.

(24:16):
He looks for the idol within twominutes.
Jersey City represent. And he's, he's, yeah.
And he's won twice. And he's on that Mount Rushmore.
He's up there with poverty and Sandra and and Boston Raw.
So there isn't a way to play Survivor.
There's only your way to play Survivor.
That's so true. Well, I don't have much time

(24:39):
left, so I want to hop into the rest of the TV topics questions.
I could talk to you about Survivor for another two or
three hours, maybe longer, but instead we'll hop over to the TV
topics question. Here we go.
So you grab your remote control and a GD comes out and offers
you this TV based wish. What TV show do you want one
more season of? It can be a prequel, it can be

(25:00):
one in the middle, or it can be 1 tag down at the end.
Man, that is a tough, tough choice.
I gotta go with Tony. I woke up this morning.
I got myself a gun. Mama always said you were the
chosen 1. You got a one in a million.
But you were. I I, I When that theme song
would play, I would dance aroundmy living room and go, oh, God,

(25:22):
it's on. But I don't want the theme song
to end because that means the episode starts.
And the minute it starts, I mean, it's a minute closer to
ending. And I just want to hear Tony
breathe one more time in the therapist's office and talk
about his anxiety while he goes and whacks somebody.
Yeah, it's a Sopranos. And where would you place that
season? It's a prequel, one in the
middle at the end in the. Middle.
No, in the middle. Yeah, in the middle.

(25:44):
And that's a great way to ask that question.
Do you think they can do one at the end, if you know what I'm
asking, Yeah. I don't know.
I mean, well, I mean, you can't do it without him, but.
Remember, this is a magic question, so it's from AG, yeah.
Magic. Oh, right, right, right.
Magic. No, I think the middle.
I think because I, I didn't, I didn't ever want it to end.

(26:06):
So I don't want to see more after it ended or, or you know,
what happened after it ended. I like the middle.
And I used to get really annoyed.
I'll give you 2 episodes to not kill somebody.
That's it. By the third episode, somebody
needs to die and it needs to be somebody that I'm invested in or
somebody that's going to turn the story in a way that helps
Tony or hurts Tony. And just that, you know, talking

(26:28):
about a cast, I mean a cast likefrom no other, so many different
types of people, but all of themnow, you know, you know,
indelible. You can't think of The Sopranos
without thinking of that array of people who are in it.
And yes or no? Unfortunately I don't have
enough time to get into it too deep.
So just yes or no? Is Tony alive or is Tony dead?

(26:48):
He's. Alive.
He's alive after the finale. Yeah, he's alive.
Yeah, he's alive. I need another three hours with
you on top of the three survivorhours.
I need to talk more about that. How about the greatest moment in
TV history according to Jeff Pro?
Wow. Simple one.
Greatest moment in TV history? That's a yeah, man.

(27:09):
Greatest moment, TV history. It's the greatest moment in TV
history. It's a moment I can remember
where I was. Greatest moment, TV history.
Man, you stumped me. The greatest moment.

(27:30):
I'm trying to think, is it even a scripted moment?
Is it a live moment? Is it a sports moment?
I don't know. I hate to leave you hanging on
that one. I don't.
I don't have one. Let's see if we have time to
come back to it. OK.
Let's try this four TV shows that make up your TV.
Mount Rushmore. The Shield.
Sopranos, Game of Thrones, and what am I missing?

(27:54):
My lap? Oh, Breaking Bad.
Fantastic TV. Mount Rushmore.
Are you a big Better Call Saul fan?
Yeah. Better Call Saul, but also
Taylor Sheridan fan. You know, Taylor Sheridan will
never get any love. Maybe, maybe.
But I love all of his shows. I love the characters, I love
the storytelling. I love all of it.
So I'm not a purist in any way. I mean, the four shows I gave

(28:18):
you on Mount Rushmore, they're on most people's Mount Rushmore.
But I just like shows that entertain me and if it
entertains me then it's great. That's and that's how I feel
about Survivor in the same way. Like if you're entertained then
great, and if you're not, then it's not for you.
Who's on your Mount Rushmore? You need a couple of them that I
would definitely consider. The Sopranos for sure.

(28:41):
I would probably go with Better Call Saul over Breaking Bad,
although both are amazing. OK maybe the shield.
I never really put the time in to think about it because I love
hearing other people's answers because it is very subjective.
And at the end of the day, you named 4 amazing ones.
I've had people go completely ina different direction.

(29:01):
I was like, you know what, that's a great choice as well.
So it's just this massive Mount Rushmore, everybody's welcome,
no right or wrong answers. Let's do this classic.
You have a magic door, one that allows you to access and live in
any TV show, popping in and out whenever you want so you don't
have to give up your real life. You walk in, your real life
pauses. You walk out.

(29:22):
It continues. Which show would it be, and why?
And when you exit that world, it's as if you never left the
real Oh. OK, the shield.
The shield. And the reason is I love
watching police interrogations on YouTube.
I love it. I would love to be inside the
clubhouse with the guys as they're talking about whatever

(29:43):
scheme they're going to pull or whatever they're into, just so I
could look around and go, you all are real people.
You're real. I know it's fiction, but this is
magic. You're really going to do this.
You're really thoughtful human beings.
And yet I really want you to succeed.
And if it's OK and I ride in theback and just kind of be a

(30:04):
witness, I got to get home later.
But yeah, we love that. I would love.
Oh, my God, that's such a fun idea.
Why don't we do that show? Somebody needs to do that show.
Figure out how to do a show where you can be inside the show
you love. That would be the ultimate
something. It'll happen and then people
will ruin it. Yeah, that's true.
Be like no one will ever want tocome out of that show.

(30:26):
And it would be like that Black Mirror episode with Paul
Giamatti where he can go into his old photos and and revisit
his past. But I can imagine getting stuck
in that world and revisiting things that you've done already.
I don't know. I think we got to keep on.
Living. Yeah, I like that.
Sorry to be a bummer. Before we go, did you come up
with the greatest moment in television history?

(30:47):
If not, we can send you some other time.
I don't have one. It's a tall order.
Do most people have one? People usually come up with one,
but it really doesn't matter. I have another.
People pass on it because it is a tough one and I don't think of
the questions out in advance because I want people to have a
more instinctual response. You know, whatever is the first
thing that pops into their head.There's no judgement here.

(31:07):
Yeah, I'm trying to think even now I'm guessing it would
probably be a sports event. Not because I'm a sports junkie,
but because I think the idea of sports and competition and
people doing things they can't believe they did or the
unthinkable, like the Olympics, the US hockey team, something
like that, where you just can't believe you just witnessed in

(31:28):
real time something happening. Because that's something I'm
excited about for the future of TV is with all of the things
that are happening in technologylive, real live, not fake, real
live, is going to become more and more and more something, at
least for me, that I'll be craving.
And I want to find it in ways other than sports.

(31:48):
And I want to find it in like, Iwould love to be able to do
Survivor Live and just let you watch, you know, when you watch
reality of a scene when they're at camp and nothing's happening,
it's almost as riveting as something happening because
you're just watching this one guy's opening a coconut.
This guy's frustrated, trying toget the fire going.
The woman behind him is the greatest fire maker, but he

(32:10):
won't give her the Flint. And nobody's saying anything.
And you're just watching human behavior.
So maybe there's something in there where the greatest moment
in TV is going to is going to berevisited by bringing us these
real experiments, these real moments.
Make it happen. I'd love to see it.

(32:31):
I do have to wrap up. I want to thank you again.
Thank you for your time. Thank you for all the seasons of
great television and for this conversation.
I love your enthusiasm about television, about Survivor.
It's great to have that passion and to wear it on your sleeve at
all times. I do.
So proudly, so enthusiastically,and so authentically.

(32:52):
It's something special. Well, thanks, Steven.
I enjoyed the. Conversation.
Thank you, as did I Have a greatday.
All right. Talk to you later, bye.
Bye now. Thanks so much to Jeff for being
my guest. Be sure to watch his work on
season 49 of Survivor coming to CBS soon.
Keep tuning into TV topics and be sure to subscribe on Spotify
or Apple Podcast or wherever youfind your podcast.

(33:14):
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tuned for more TV topics. TV Topics is produced by Stephen
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