{"id":864367,"date":"2026-09-29T05:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T05:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/864367\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T05:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T05:34:08","slug":"jeff-probst-nothing-has-changed-on-survivor-after-dei-rolled-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/864367\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Probst: ‘Nothing Has Changed’ on Survivor After DEI Rolled Back"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tJeff Probst<\/a> said \u201cnothing has changed\u201d on Survivor<\/a> when it comes to the reality show\u2019s approach to diversity, equity and inclusion, despite Paramount<\/a> rolling back DEI policies when Donald Trump returned to the White House.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe long-running host and showrunner recently told The New York Times <\/a>that it was \u201cone of the biggest positive changes ever,\u201d referring to when CBS<\/a> launched a DEI initiative in 2020, post-Black Lives Matter, that required unscripted reality shows to have at least 50 percent of castmembers be people of color.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIf you watch our show, you know that we\u2019re so diverse \u2014 and it\u2019s not just skin color or ethnicity. It goes much deeper than that,\u201d the Emmy winner said. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the biggest positive changes ever. Our stories are so much more interesting now because we have people from completely different walks of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Hollywood Reporter reported<\/a> last year that Paramount was among companies across the entertainment industry stepping back on policies aimed at boosting diversity amid a larger crackdown on DEI programs driven by the Trump administration. David Ellison\u2019s Skydance also committed to eliminating all DEI initiatives <\/a>last year as it sought the FCC\u2019s approval for Skydance\u2019s merger with Paramount.<\/p>\n

\n\tProbst added to the Times, \u201cI feel no pressure. No one ever says, can you count the numbers again? But Jesse Tannenbaum, who runs our casting team, knows: There\u2019s no stopping, not because we\u2019re told to do it. This is what we need. We need diversity. It\u2019s for narrative. All those differences matter in the story when you throw people together and force them to rely on each other while conspiring against each other. The more diverse, the more interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs Survivor returned for its 51st season last Wednesday, Probst previously told THR<\/a> that he felt \u201cenormous pressure\u201d heading into the new season following the show\u2019s milestone 50th season.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe felt pressure before we shot 50,\u201d the host said. \u201cWe were already feeling like, \u2018What are we going to do after 50, even though we have not even produced 50?\u2019 And I think that pressure was really good because it focused us on 50 and the minute 50 was over, everybody was thinking, \u2018OK, what\u2019s next?\u2019 That\u2019s really what led to this idea of the \u2018Open Era\u2019 \u2014 the pressure of needing something new to really birth us into the next decade.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSurvivor airs Wednesdays<\/a> at 8 p.m. ET\/PT on CBS and streams live on Paramount+.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jeff Probst said \u201cnothing has changed\u201d on Survivor when it comes to the reality show\u2019s approach to diversity,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":864368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[991,88,49092,4208,2355,92],"class_list":["post-864367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-cbs","tag-entertainment","tag-jeff-probst","tag-paramount","tag-survivor","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=864367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/864368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=864367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=864367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=864367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}