Jeff Probst Accidentally Spoils Part of ‘Survivor 50’ Finale Due to Live Production Mishap: ‘The Last Twist of the Season’

SPOILER ALERT: The following story contains spoilers for the finale of “Survivor 50: In the Hands of the Fans.”

Jeff Probst accidentally revealed the winner and loser of the “Survivor 50” fire-making competition — which determines who makes it to the final three — before the segment aired.

During Wednesday night’s finale, Aubry Bracco won the final immunity challenge of the season and chose to send Rizo Velovic and Jonathan Young to the fire-making competition. But after CBS aired footage of her announcing her decision, the episode cut to Probst onstage in front of a live studio audience in Los Angeles. There, it appears Probst was mistakenly prompted by production staff to bring out the loser, Velovic, despite that fans hadn’t yet watched Young beat him.

As Probst announced that Velovic was the last member of the Season 50 jury, he noticed people’s confused reactions — including loud gasps from the audience. Cirie Fields, a fan-favorite contestant on the jury, awkwardly told Probst that fire-making hadn’t been shown on-screen before the episode cut to commercial. After that, in the studio, a confused Probst asked the audience what had just happened.

But he had a good sense of humor about it all. Probst left the stage momentarily during the commercial break, and upon his return, the audience began yelling: “We love you, Jeff!” Grinning, he said “I love live television” as the cameras started rolling again.

Joking about the mishap, he said, “We were supposed to show you fire-making, and then have the loser of fire-making, Rizo, come out and talk about how charming he is, and if how he had practiced fire-making, maybe he would have won. Instead, we did a ‘Survivor’ twist. It’s the last twist of the season. Now, we’re gonna watch Rizo lose.” As the spoiled fire-making competition was finally put on screen, audience members in the studio chanted Velovic’s name.