Jeff Probst Says Survivor Could Potentially Go On Forever: 'I Hope That If My Time Comes To An End...'

Even Jeff Probst didn't think Survivor would last 25 years. But when TVLine hops on the phone with the competition series' host, the topic of conversation is Season 49 — 49! — of a show that not only has blatant staying power, but one that changed the reality genre forever with its electric twists, dynamic stories and its globally famous tagline: The tribe has spoken.

"When people ask me, 'Did you ever think Survivor would last 25 years?' Obviously, no," the host tells TVLine. "Nobody would. You could never predict that. So we just keep our heads down and try to do one season at a time."

With Survivor 49 off and running (read our premiere recap here, along with our first exit interview) and a highly anticipated returnees season already in the can for next year, I ask the host how far he looks down the road. Since production films two seasons nearly back-to-back, can he already envision what 60 looks like?

"After 40, for me, it was, 'Let's just figure out how to restart this entire thing.' And [executive producer] Matt Van Wagenen was the first one to say, 'Let's put 50 as our next goal,' and that felt like a big goal to me," says Probst. "That's 10 seasons of Survivor, and we got there, so we're kind of at that point again with thinking ahead."

My follow-up is simple and direct: How long do you see Survivor running?

"Nick, I don't know the answer to the question," he says. "I feel the format is perfect, and could, in theory, run forever with a big budget or with a small budget. You could do this game with big challenges. You could do it playing dominoes. The social dynamic is what the game is about, and all the other stuff makes it big and exciting and dramatic and cinematic. All of those things go into it. But really, when you get down to the core of Survivor, it is a game of social politics. That always has been. How do you live with people and get rid of them, and then get them to give you the money in the end? How do you do that? It's like a magic trick."

So if the show does carry on "forever," seemingly at some point, it would be without the man, the myth, the legend RizGod Probst. So how's Jeff feeling about his role on the show now that it's well in the throes of casting Seasons 51 and 52?

"I think my personal connection to the show is obvious. I live, breathe, eat, sleep and think about Survivor all day," he says, "and I hope that if my time comes to an end and I've run out of ideas, that it'll be obvious to me, so that I don't have to get voted out of the game. But right now, I don't feel that. I feel really energetic about our team and our ideas, and we're already working on 51. We're really excited about it.

"You know, you've seen it," Probst says, referring to my recent trip to Fiji for Survivor 50 (more on that later). "We give everything. We do the best job we can. I'm not saying we get it right every time, but I can tell you, we give everything we have to the show. We want it to be great because we want the people who come out to play to actually get the adventure of their lifetime."