‘I think I need to be a little harder on that’: ‘Survivor’ host Jeff Probst addresses the show’s quitters, promising changes in the future

Out of the first four ousted castaways on Survivor 45 — Hannah Rose, Brandon Donlon, Sabiyah Broderick, and Sean Edwards — two of them self-eliminated from the beloved competition series, ultimately causing an uproar from viewers about the lack of commitment from contestants in the “New Era” of Survivor.

While longtime host Jeff Probst was definitely disheartened to see both Hannah Rose and Sean Edwards quit, he snuffed their torches nonetheless.

Probst famously says season after season, “In this game, fire represents your life. When your fire’s gone, so are you” when the castaways light their torches during their first time at tribal council. Because of this, snuffing a contestant’s torch represents their game coming to a close, but in the future, quitters might not get the privilege…

On Live With Kelly and Mark, Probst dished about both Hannah and Sean’s untimely exits, seeming to downplay the significance of their self-eliminations. “Yes, two people quit. The truth is, in over 45 seasons, it’s less than one percent quit, so it’s pretty remarkable… The one thing you can’t test for in all the psych testing is all the real elements — the rain, the bamboo, the snakes and all that,” he dished, prior to diving into how he will plan to handle quitters in the future.

He exclaimed, “I want to declare right here on your show that from this point forward if you are a Survivor player and you quit, your torch will not be snuffed. That’s over. To get your torched snuffed, you got to play the game” — how wild is that?

Probst has shown anger and aggression towards those who have self-eliminated from Survivor in the past, most notably towards the first individual to quit the hit competition show, Osten Taylor of Survivor: Pearl Islands. While basically shouting the words “go home” at him, the longtime host still snuffed his torch, prior to throwing it on the ground in front of all of the remaining castaways — yikes!

“You don’t get the moment if you quit… I think I need to be a little harder on that,” Probst concluded, explaining how getting your torch snuffed is a privilege.

Will the 62-year-old raise the bar during Survivor 46? Only time will tell…

Mark your calendars, because Survivor 46 premieres on Wednesday, February 28 at 8pm ET/PT on CBS. Until then, catch brand new episodes of Survivor 45 every Wednesday at 8pm ET/PT on CBS to see how the remainder of the season plays out.