Survivor’s Jeff Probst Teases Potential International Crossover Season

This year, MTV’s popular reality competition franchise The Challenge kicked off a global tournament that will see winners from several countries battle it out for a massive prize. It started with The Challenge USA, which aired on CBS, ahead of the full global showdown to come on Paramount+. Survivor is still Paramount’s crown jewel when it comes to reality competitions, but the flagship CBS series has largely stayed separated from its international spinoffs. That could change sometime in the future, especially now that The Challenge has laid the groundwork.

Survivor has several spinoffs around the globe, with shows in places like South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia. During a recent interview with EW, Survivor host and producer Jeff Probst was asked about the possibility of the various Survivor shows joining forces for a global event, similar to what The Challenge is planning. According to Probst, have been conversations about putting something together.

“First off, I watched the premiere of The Challenge [USA] and really liked it,” Probst said. “They do a great job producing that show, and it was fun to see so many familiar faces! And I could definitely take a note or two when it comes to how produce a host entrance. T.J. comes on like a rock star! Now that’s how you do it!”

“Okay back to your question,”he continued. “We have definitely considered some kind of international Survivor showdown, but we’ve never figured out a way to do it that we thought would be fun for our audience and still loyal to the format.”

Will There Be a Survivor Crossover?

Some of the Survivor spinoffs are wildly popular, especially Australian Survivor, which has a big following here in the United States. Alumni from the flagship series have made the jump to Australia in the past, including one of the show’s only two-time winners, Sandra Diaz-Twine, who competed with her daughter in Australian Survivor‘s most recent season. 

According to Probst, a major issue facing a potential global Survivor competition is a language barrier potentially affecting the nuances of the social game.

“Survivor is so much about the nuance of relationships, and with the language barriers that come with an international format, we’re not yet convinced we know how to do it,” Probst said.

That does seem a bit confusing, however, as many of the prominent Survivor international spinoffs come from predominantly English-speaking countries. Australians and South Africans playing a game with Americans and Canadians doesn’t seem like too big of an issue as far as language is concerned.

Would you like to see a global Survivor crossover sometime in the future? Let us know in the comments!