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Jeff Probst Reveals Which Famous Host Almost Got His Job On 'Survivor'

CBS' Survivor is in its 40th Season - "Winners At War." The show premieres next Wednesday, February 12th, hosted by Emmy Award winner Jeff Probst. The season features 20 past winners from its 20 year history! Only 600 people have played Survivor.... but only 38 have ever won.

"This is the greatest season of Survivor," says Probst to Elvis Duran Monday, February 3rd, morning, "The show continues to reinvent itself."

Survivor premiered in 2000 and Probst has been there from the very start, but that almost wasn't the case.... When Probst was going on auditions and even when he auditioned for Survivor people would say, "We really love you, but you’re nobody." So Probst has to campaign to get the job. He created a bunch of 'prediction' articles and put them in a bottle for the show's creator saying things like 'Survivor will put Friends off the air,' and other predictions like it. Probst eventually found out it was him and one other guy left in the audition to become host of Survivor, and while he didn't know exactly who, he though Phil Keoghan, would have been a choice. Well while walking in to his final audition, Probst tells Elvis that "the sign up sheet read Phil Keoghan." Probst continues saying "Phil was wearing a suit and I was wearing a t-shirt and jeans and I thought a suit is not survivor." Well it all worked out because Keoghan went on to host the Amazing Race, another long-running CBS show.

In Probst interview with Elvis he also reveals what his starting salary was for the show and we also go into a debate of why Elvis' assistant Andrew should be on the show in the next season!

Watch the full interview above and be sure to watch Survivor Wednesday's 8/9 central on CBS.