Among the other new wrinkles is the introduction of something Probst calls “Do It Yourself Challenges,” a few of which will be sprinkled throughout the season. (A similar experiment took place on Survivor: Samoa when confused contestants arrived at a challenge only to find some crates and no Probst.) This time, these Probst-less competitions will take place back at camp. Tribes will receive materials and instructions informing them of the rules so that they can then conduct their own challenge. “So they figure out how they’re going to run it, who’s going to participate, and then they run it,” Probst explains. “There’s no judge there. There’s no person to moderate it. You guys figure it out. We were hoping somebody might step up and decide to become the annoying host and say things like, ‘Pick up the pace! You dropped a coconut!’ And sure enough, that’s what happens.” But the impact felt from these Do It Yourself Challenges will not stop there. “You have the question of, what do you do with all the materials from the challenge?” says Probst. “In one case, we do a challenge with a gigantic rope and when you’re done, you have this massive rope and now you can utilize it in your camp somehow.”


