Jeff Probst Did the Psych Evaluation that ‘Survivor’ Contestants Must Do – And There Was a Surprising Result
Survivor is known to be a physically and emotionally demanding competition show for cast members. Before being chosen for TV, prospective contestants have to undergo psychological evaluations. Host Jeff Probst himself has done these tests, and he recently shared something surprising he learned about the results.
What does the psychological evaluations for ‘Survivor’ entail?
On Probst’s new podcast, On Fire with Jeff Probst, he shared details about the casting process for Survivor, including its psychological evaluations conducted by qualified professionals. Probst said:
“These tests are designed to learn about your behavior … a lot of people might have heard of the Myers-Briggs test—it’s a very well-known test. It’s not one that we use, but we use tests like that.”
On Fire with Jeff Probst via Apple Podcasts
In addition to taking the test, each person will also discuss their results with the psych team. “They will sit with you and discuss your life,” he said. “It’s a very deep dive into who you are, and it’s extremely personal and very revealing, I think, to the player when they go through this.”
There are several things the psych team wants to know about each person, and Probst gave examples of questions they aim to answer: “Who are you? How do you operate? What makes you tick? Are you flexible and resilient? Are you a problem solver? How are you with interpersonal skills? How are you gonna be in new relationships with groups and strangers? How will you fare out in the jungle living in the wild on Survivor?”
Jeff Probst shares his surprising results from the evaluations
Probst has worked on Survivor for over 20 years, and during that time, he has taken the psychological evaluations himself. Although Probst did not share the actual results he got, he did reveal something interesting from one of the tests he took.
“I have taken this one test in particular with Dr. Liza [Siegel] about 15 years ago,” he said. “It was so accurate. I could not believe I was being seen for who I really was.” Probst continued,
“What was funny was, over the next period of years, I was in therapy, I was working on myself, I wanted to become a better human. I said, ‘Hey, Liza, I’ve been doing a lot of work on myself. I was thinking, why don’t I take that test again and let’s just see what it says this time?’”
After Probst took the test again, he found out that he got the “same result” as before. This is because, as Probst learned from the psychologist, these tests are designed to measure a person’s “core,” which does not change much over time, even if a person’s behavior and viewpoints change.
‘Survivor’ wants to see ‘authenticity’ from contestants
Related: ‘Survivor’: Jeff Probst’s New Podcast Includes a Segment Called ‘Why Jeff Sucks’
One reason why psychological evaluations are done is that, according to Probst, the team behind Survivor highly values “authenticity.” They want to see contestants who are showing their true selves.
“Authenticity is what connects to a player,” he shared. “Every player you’ve ever loved has one thing in common—they’re authentically true to who they are … We don’t care who you are. We just want to know ‘who are you?’”
