Survivor host Jeff Probst has no interest in giving vegetarian contestants special treatment.
After Survivor 47 castaway Kyle Ostwald blindly bet on a plate of chicken wings during a food auction featured in the Wednesday, November 6, episode of the reality compeтιтion series, he decided to eat the meat despite years of being a vegetarian. (Kyle’s compeтιтor Sam Phalen offered to buy the wings off him, but Probst, 63, said no sharing or trading would be allowed.)
The moment sparked backlash among some fans, with one X user questioning why Survivor was “glorifying giving the vegetarian the ‘moral dilemma’ of eating meat” and comparing the situation to giving a sober contestant a margarita.
A Reddit user argued that Kyle, 31, eating the wings “just felt kinda forced” despite acknowledging that he “is his own person” who made the decision of his own free will.
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“Wtf Jeff?!” the Reddit user wrote. “It just feels weird that Survivor production could have beef with anything and it’s the people that can’t eat beef.”
Probst, who has hosted Survivor since it premiered in 2000, insisted during Wednesday’s episode of his “On Fire With Jeff Probst” podcast that contestants with dietary restrictions “know what they’re getting into” when they apply to be on the show.
Kyle Ostwald and Jeff Probst on ‘Survivor.’ Robert Voets/CBS
“They know that we’re not going to change our show to accommodate anyone, in the same way we didn’t change anything when [Survivor 43 contestant] Noelle [Lambert], who had a prosthetic leg, was on the show,” he said, noting that he had “no advice” for contestants who can’t eat certain foods. “She still had to get up the same challenges over the same giant ball, all that stuff. That’s how we view the game.”
Probst added that he typically doesn’t even know whether contestants have dietary restrictions.
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“You may think, ‘How could you possibly spend months and months getting to know these people and not know something about whether they’re vegetarian or not?’ But I don’t,” he said. “It’s irrelevant to me.”
The television producer said all that matters to him is whether a contestant is “a good storyteller” with “a point of view.”
Kyle noted during the auction that he’d previously switched from veganism to vegetarianism solely because of his Survivor aspirations. Prior to the chicken wings incident, he broke down and ate a piece of crab during a deleted scene shared with Entertainment Weekly last month.
Kyle Ostwald and Gabe Ortis on ‘Survivor.’ Robert Voets/CBS
“To go seven-plus into eight years with only eating things that were grown from the earth itself — I haven’t harmed anything with a heartbeat in a long time — I finally felt so low to the point where I was willing to break that dedication that I had to myself,” Kyle told cameras.
When his fellow castaway Gabe Ortis asked him how the crab tasted, Kyle replied, “Like I’m doing something wrong.”
Kyle is not the first Survivor contestant to have fewer food options than his compeтιтors while living off the land. Survivor 46’s Liz Wilcox, who has extensive food allergies and therefore couldn’t eat coconut or much of anything else on the island, had an infamous meltdown when Q Burdette didn’t invite her along on a reward to eat Applebee’s food.
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“I’m pissed!” Liz memorably screamed through tears after Q, 30, made his choice.
While Liz knows better than anyone how hungry one can get on the show, she was unimpressed with this season’s Survivor auction.
Liz Wilcox on ‘Survivor.’ CBS
“I’m sorry but the auction on Day 14 just isn’t exciting for me to watch. And that’s coming from ME. The starvingest contestant there ever was,” she wrote via X on Wednesday.
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In a subsequent tweet, Liz added, “Like I was definitely very hungry at this point but I [also] wasn’t eating coconut! Call me sick — I just don’t think they’re hungry enough yet. Two more days and yes! Very very hungry!”
If even Liz is calling for harsher auction conditions on Survivor, Us doesn’t think the show will be changing its policy surrounding dietary restrictions anytime soon.
Survivor airs on CBS and Paramount + Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET. You can stream episodes on Paramount + the next day.
