When the Survivor medical team calls for an evacuation, it’s never taken lightly and in season 49, that call came after contestant Jake Latimer was bitten by a venomous snake, a sea krait. The incident forced the medical team to pull the “Shoe Bandit” from the game, marking the 20th medical evacuation in the CBS reality competition show’s 25-year history and serving as a stark reminder of just how real the danger can be in Fiji. In an exclusive interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Survivor showrunner and host Jeff Probst goes behind the scenes of the emergency that played out on the Oct. 8 episode.
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What’s the protocol for someone getting bitten by an animal? Does the player have to ask for help or is there immediately someone from medical who is called?
The level of involvement of our medical team is always dependent on the severity of an injury. If it’s a small cut, then their involvement is minimal if at all. But when something more severe, like a snake bite happens, our medical team is immediately involved. The player has no say. Our biggest concern during production is the integrity of the game and safety of the players. In this case, the call to medical was immediate and the response was just as fast.
Hearing the medical team ask as Jake comes up to the dock on the boat, “Is he breathing?” was a bit terrifying. What was going through your mind when you arrived because most times we see the medical team at the beach and not at base camp?
The reason there was some uncertainty about whether or not Jake was breathing was because while Jake was being transported by boat to basecamp, we lost communication with them. So when they arrived, we didn’t know what condition he was in. When I reached our medical center, it was very clear this was as serious as we feared and that Jake was in the absolute best care he could ever hope, for someone bitten by a snake in the middle of the ocean. He had our full team of doctors, nurses and paramedics.
Jake Latimer (center) here with contestants Matt Williams and Jawan Pitts on Survivor.
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Was there any thought about not having the immunity challenge? If the Hina or Uli Tribe would have said they didn’t want to do the challenge would it have been skipped?
We never considered not running the challenge. The game moves forward. Always. But it’s a really interesting question when you put it in the hands of the players. I don’t know how we would have handled your imaginary scenario. It’s very unlikely that we would have done anything differently, but every situation is specific and I would have definitely listened to their ideas and taken it from there.
This is the 20th time that a player has been medically evacuated from the game. What makes this one different and what do you think these evacuations say about how challenging Survivor is?
Well, one way to look at it is this is our 20th evacuation. The other way to look at it is that of the 751 people who have played Survivor over 25 years, only 20 have been evacuated. That’s just over two percent. What any evacuation says about this game is that it’s real. I still get asked all the time if Survivor is real. I don’t know if that’s because other unscripted shows don’t feel real and so people assume Survivor isn’t, or if it just seems so unlikely that this kind of adventure show could actually exist. But for anyone who still wonders, that was a real sea krait, that was a real bite, and that was a very terrifying situation.
Tell us about the safety guide at camp that Alex mentioned. I don’t think most viewers know anything about it or that it even existed.
We always give the tribes a safety book that highlights things like which kind of nuts or berries are safe to eat and which are not. It also includes things like snakes to watch out for and other helpful ways to help them navigate the jungle. What’s most interesting to me is how few players ever even reference it. It’s similar to how many people show up to play Survivor without having ever picked up a flint. What it always reminds me is that Survivor is ultimately a social game. If your social game is great, then you don’t ever have to win an individual challenge, make fire, find an idol or read the safety guide.
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New episodes of Survivor season 49 air at 8 p.m. Wednesdays on CBS, streaming next day on Paramount+.
