With an extra 30 minutes tacked onto Survivor 45’s episodes, the door was open for Jeff Probst to insert some fun Easter eggs into the show for fans to spot.
Survivor is set to hit CBS and Paramount Plus on Wednesday, Sept. 27. And ahead of the 45th season’s premiere, Entertainment Weekly caught up with the longtime host and producer. During the interview published on Sept. 25, Probst said because the season will feature 90-minute episodes instead of 60, the opening title sequence would play at the start of each episode beginning on Oct. 4.
An opening montage of the season’s contestants with their names plastered on screen to kick off an episode was the norm back in the day. But, presumably because of the 60-minute time crunch, the sequence was cut years ago.
Probst not only confirmed with the outlet that it’s returning, but the opener will be different than before.
“Not only is the main title back but there’s an Easter egg in every main title for the true super fan,” Probst said. “The main title in and of itself was enough to bring back. It’s very fun. But this is a new era of Survivor, so we thought, ‘Let’s make it fun for the audience as well by giving them a little something special in each main title.’
“And that’s all I’ll say. You don’t need to find the Easter egg to enjoy the episode, but if you find the Easter egg, it might give you a little more insight into the episode.”
Probst didn’t share any other details about the Easter eggs — it’ll be up to eagle-eyed viewers to catch them with little to go on.
Probst shared new happenings regarding the hidden immunity idol and the reinvention of the Survivor auction
Probst also shared two other elements of Survivor 45 that were added because of the lengthened timeslot. And it’s not a reward challenge every week.
He said that the Survivor auction challenge would play out at some point during the season. The auction is a Survivor staple but hasn’t appeared in years. Given a finite amount of cash, players bid on food, luxuries, and advantages. However, the latter item created a problem for the challenge. Cast members would hold onto their money and not buy anything until an advantage was put up for bid.
To usher it into Survivor 45, Probst told Entertainment Weekly that his team revamped how the auction was played (more on that here). Also, Probst said that finding a hidden immunity idol this season took a lot more “ingenuity” than just searching trees and under rocks. Instead, players had to work harder — potentially with each other, Probst teased — to secure the advantage.