Jeff, the show wouldn’t be the same with out you. Simon’s leaving Idol, Jeff leaving Survivor? NOOO!
The host has spoken! Jeff Probst is staying on Survivor for its 21st and 22nd seasons, he tells PEOPLE.
“After 10 years and 20 seasons, it felt like a prudent and thoughtful thing to take a moment and breathe and think, ‘what’s next for me?’” says Probst, 47. “But I started to come back to the same conclusion, which was I am not finished with Survivor yet. It’s the right way to go.”
Helping him make the decision was a good working experience on the latest edition, Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains, which premieres Feb. 11 (8 p.m. EST) on CBS. “I think Heroes vs. Villains is going to satisfy on every level,” he says, “so what’s inspiring about that is we are coming off Samoa with Russell and a season with 20 returning all-stars, so we have to do something special with 21 and 22. We have to be on our game and get very creative, so that is very exciting.”
It also helped to have a reunion celebration for the 10 years the show has been on. “It really hit me when I walked in to the party a month ago and saw the logos for the 20 seasons on the wall,” Probst says. “That was a really great kick in the pants for me to say, ‘Don’t be embarrassed to be proud of what the team has accomplished.’ Twenty seasons is a lot of television. I am very much aware that I have one of the top 10 jobs on television. I get it.”
Literally looking back also put a lot of things into perspective. “The first thing I look at when I look at old seasons is the hair,” he admits, “and then I look at the clothes. That very first season, we bought the clothes in Malaysia and they didn’t even fit! I also look at things like my posture. I was hunched over, kind of intimidated — there are so many things to look at.”
