Survivor 45 tried something new with a recent episode.
While Jake O’Kane was talking to the camera about a possible Tribal Council plan, something surprising happened.
The scene shifted from Jake on the beach to a six-person Tribal Council.
As Jake narrated how he wanted a voting plan to work, we could see it playing out in front of host Jeff Probst.
This flash-forward gave viewers an early view of what might happen later in the episode, but it was jarring for some Survivor fans.
But Jeff Probst said he had his “mind blown” when he first saw the episode. He didn’t even know they were going to use the flash-forward scene.
Explaining the flash-forward scene
Survivor 45, Episode 7 featured an intense Immunity Challenge that led to two eliminations.
The episode even revealed the first Survivor 45 juror.
During that challenge, the 12 castaways were split into teams of six people.
Dee Valladares won safety (and a buffet) by beating everyone in the challenge. But her team still had to vote someone out.
As Jake thought about how the vote might go, the flash-forward sequence began. Jake envisioned himself, Kaleb Gebrewold, and Katurah Topps voting for Julie Alley. He also saw Julie, Austin Li Coon, and Dee voting for Kaleb. If a tie happened, Jake was convinced Austin would side with them so he wouldn’t have to draw rocks.
That’s not how things went, as Kaleb got voted out and became the first juror.
Jeff Probst talks about shocking flash-forward scene on Survivor
“Here’s this scenario,” Jeff explained on a new episode of his podcast, On Fire.
“I’m on my back deck calmly sitting. It’s a Saturday morning, I’m drinking a cup of coffee and I’m watching this episode. And when I saw this moment, I was so inspired that I unconsciously sort of jumped out of my chair,” Jeff continued.
“I splashed coffee all over my MacBook because I was racing to get my phone to call the editor Fred Hawthorne to ask where this inspired idea came from,” Jeff added.
Fred didn’t tell Jeff they were going with the flash-forward sequence, so even the host was surprised when he first saw it.
The originality of the moment helped make that episode of Survivor even more exciting. And it showed there are still some fresh ideas behind the scenes that can amp up the show in the future.
“But you can’t help but also watch as a fan because the episodes are so good. So when this moment hit, my mind exploded, my knees jumped off, thus the coffee splash all over my MacBook,” Jeff added later.
Jeff also talked to Entertainment Weekly and Dalton Ross about what he wrote down when he first saw the episode.
“Here’s what I wrote,” Jeff said.
“WTF! Holy Smokes. MIND EXPLODING. Mind blown. Crime scene. Call 911. An older white male just had his mind explode all over his patio. Urgent care needed,” Jeff told EW.
Previous episodes of Survivor are available for streaming on Paramount+.
Jeff Probst also celebrated his Shot in the Dark twist paying off.
Survivor airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.