Survivor Can Still Make Jeff Probst Cry

ABLUpdated 3 weeks Ago1 Mins read6

Survivor is, above all else, a social experiment. On the March 26 episode, Joe, the most intense man in the world, went out of his way to comfort Eva, who privately revealed her autism diagnosis to him before the contestants were put on opposing tribes. The dilemma: Helping her would hurt his game, revealing the strength of their alliance — but, on the other hand, he did basically adopt her. After 24-year-old Ph.D. student Eva won her tribe the challenge, she experienced what she refers to as “an autism episode” due to the pressure, crying and screaming. “I physically cannot control myself, I don’t have the capability to calm down here because I’m so overstimulated,” Eva said, describing the moment to People. With Jeff Probst’s permission — and Joe being Joe — he sprinted over to Eva to hug her and put pressure on her hands. Once she felt better, Eva chose to share her diagnosis for the first time with everybody on the season, asking the other players to “take a step away from the game and understand that this is what I deal with with my autism, and everyone who has autism should not be ashamed to ask for help and ashamed to receive it.”

The emotion of the moment caused even Jeff Probst, who’s hosted 47 seasons of this show, to cry. “There is a young girl or boy just like you watching and going, ‘Hey, mom, hey, dad,’” Probst said, getting choked up. “Now you’ve got me … I’m a parent too. I see it too.” He previously only teared up at the occasional family visit (and those don’t even happen in the New Era).

“It was crazy seeing Jeff cry — I’d never seen that,” Eva told People. “Seeing Jeff get so emotional about the situation and thinking about his own family and his kids, that was the moment when it hit me, that this is a moment that is going to be remembered.”