CBS4 News Takes Center Stage
Sep 25, 2008 10:39 am US/Eastern
Jeff Probst Chats About Survivor Gabon Premiere
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
Survivor's 17th season kicks off Thursday night in a place called Gabon, which is being billed as 'The Last Eden'.
The handsomely dimpled Jeff Probst returns as the newly crowned Emmy winner of Best Reality Show host. He'll lead 18 new castaways through the treacherous land of Gabon, a West Africa nation near the Congo.
Located on the equator, Gabon is 85 per cent rainforest. Since 2002, 11-percent of Gabon's territory has been turned into 13 National Parks, which is thought to be the largest area of nature parks in the world.
Probst told
CBS4's Dr. Sean Kenniff, a former survivor castaway himself, that there's no escaping the wildlife.
"You have jungle on one side, and you have Atlantic Ocean on the other. So you have elephants in the jungle, and surfing hippos wading in the water. It was an odd place," explained Probst.
Gabon has about 35-thousand Gorillas, 60-thousand Forest Elephants and 64-thousand Chimpanzees. Other large mammals include the Hippopotamus, Forest Buffalo, Bongo and Red River Hog.
While evading the wildlife, the contestants will be trying to outwit, outplay and outlast each other in order to win the million dollar grand prize. Probst described one of the contestants, Corinne Kaplan who has ties to South Florida, as one of the meanest players to ever play the game.
"If you go up to Corinne and say, 'I've got to tell you. You are one of the sweetest nicest persons I've ever met. She'll go (smack)--She'll pop you in the face. She told me, that's the biggest insult you can ever say to me, I'm a mean person."
But there is plenty to love. A Maine physics instructor named Bob, a surfer named Matty, a beautiful boxer named Michelle, and a pin-up named Sugar and plenty of eye popping eye candy for both sexes.
"There's a guy Markus, a doctor from Atlanta. He has guys after him, he has women after him, he's the resident stud," said Probst.
The major twist this season is the trips to Exile, producers dropped the "Island." Exiled players will be allowed to choose between a clue to an Immunity Idol or some form of comfort: food, a soft bed, etc.
"Depending upon the time, we'll make the temptation bigger and bigger. The idea was to see if anybody would be dumb enough to choose comfort over the only thing that guarantees you to stick in the game, which is immunity," explained Jeff Probst.
Thursday night's two-hour opener is a first in the show's history. It begins at 8:00 on
CBS4. The first episode is titled "Want to See the Elephant Dung?"
Season 17 in Gabon is also the first to be shot and shown in High Definition.
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