Oopsy.
Photo: Robert Voets/CBS
The Survivor 50 finale went exactly as expected: Aubry Bracco won the game, Joe Hunter gave another flaccid Final Tribal Council, and the live audience cheered for Cirie Fields. But the best moment came from the one time the episode went off script: Jeff Probst screwed up big time, and we all got to watch. In a by-the-books evening, pointing and laughing just feels good.
The problem arose at the final-four elimination. Back in Fiji, immunity-challenge winner Aubry put Rizo Velovic and Jonathan Young into the fire-making challenge, damning one of them to be the final member of the jury. With that, the show cut back to the live finale happening in real time in Los Angeles, where Probst brought out Rizo. “You become the final member of our jury; take a spot over here,” Probst said to Rizo, before the audience found out he lost the game. The live studio audience did not applaud, confusing Probst. “What just happened?” the host asked, short-circuiting.
“They didn’t show the fire,” Rizo muttered. Probst responded, “Oop,” jerking his head back a little. “I’m not even sure what’s happened, but up next we’re gonna have one final surprise for the players,” he continued. And with that, the show cut away to commercial.
By the time the show came back from commercial, Probst had clearly been filled in on his own error. “We were going to show you fire-making and then have the loser of fire-making, Rizo, come out and talk about how charming he is and how maybe, if he’d practiced fire-making, maybe he would have won,” Probst said. “Instead, we did a Survivor twist — it’s the last twist of the season.” With that, the full audience burst out laughing. “Now, we’re gonna watch Rizo lose in fire to Jonathan.” Ever the professional, Probst recovered the moment beautifully, even though the chagrin was still emanating through the screen.
“I was very confused,” Rizo told People after getting offstage. “Jeff wanted to give me my moment, which was great, but I’m getting my moment before the travesty of losing fire back-to-back times. So, I was trying to be a professional, I was trying to be funny, trying to see if Jeff would pick up what happened.” He added, “He didn’t, but I think we picked it up pretty well.” Given how smoothly the Survivor machinery usually runs, Probst being unable to realize he’d messed up in real time makes total sense. It’s also what makes the moment — which is still available to watch on Paramount+ — so satisfying. Probst malfunctioned because he couldn’t fully compute that something went wrong. Sorry, buddy, but that is hilarious. Thanks for the Schadenfreude.
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