Kansas native Jeff Probst, forty-one, is certainly no stranger to the millions around the world who have watched the first six Survivor shows. (A seventh, taking place in the Pearl Islands, Panama, is set to start next month.) And he is also no stranger to the fight against HIV/AIDS, through his affiliation as a celebrity spokesperson for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. When you meet the personable, compact, and attractive man (with his girlfriend, visual artist Kami, he recently bought a “tree house” in the hills above West Los Angeles), he has that special ability to put you completely at ease—a factor in his success as host of the incredibly popular
grandfather of “reality” television shows.

As the charming host of Survivor, one who moderates the tribal councils that ultimately lead to one winner each season, he has gained a strong international name recognition. But his early show biz history is, in fact, in the production end of filmmaking and television as a writer/producer of technical films in Seattle, actor, and corporate video host, which ultimately led him to write and direct his first feature film, Finder’s Fee, a fine movie that Lions Gate Home Video will distribute later this year. But he earned his hosting wings by helming a Seattle home and gardening show and L.A.-based Rock & Roll Jeopardy! for VH1, a low-paying gig that led to a year on Access Hollywood, which he found “a bad fit.” “I found I really wasn’t interested in the superficiality connected to interviewing celebs, so we parted ways,” Probst says. It was a chance hearing of a radio interview with producer Mark Burnett about a new show on CBS, Survivor, that prompted Probst to connect with him. “It was to be a social experiment; that really turned me on,” he says. His campaigning for the job paid off. Survivor first aired in the summer of 2000 and, in its second season, topped the Nielsens, coming in higher than NBC’s Friends.

For someone from his generation and of his sexual orientation, perhaps how absolutely non-phobic he is about people living with HIV/AIDS shouldn't be as surprising as it is. “I feel terrible for those who suffer from physical and emotional problems,” he says. “So I don't give a shit what people think about me; Survivor cured me of worrying about that. Any affiliation I have with this charity is because I want to be involved. My first exposure to AIDS, in 1990, came from learning about an eight-year-old boy named Steven who was living with AIDS, a friend of [the late] Ryan White. He was the neatest kid. He had another buddy, Jack, in his forties, also living with AIDS, who’d befriended this kid as a mentor. Jack was a gardener who brought Steven onto the [home and gardening] show as a guest.” He continues: “I visited Steven's house where his dad restored cars in order to be with his son. I got to know the boy and what an experience it turned out to be—as with so many young survivors, he had this wisdom, this incredible insight—he knew what life was. So we did a story on him.” In a doubly sad ending to the tale, little Steven died not long afterwards and Jack sickened and died horribly in a freak fire at home when his oxygen mask somehow caught fire.

Probst discovered the Glaser Foundation (with their Call to Action program and college dance marathons) when his mother, who was active in the college sorority world, introduced him to Joel Goldman, a professional AIDS speaker in their college outreach program. “I became aware of how incredible an organization they were,” he shares. “From experience, I've learned that good
intentions don't necessarily mean an organization is well-run—but the Glaser Foundation is. They get maximum value for every dollar raised.” He is also quite unabashed about his involvement: “I'm proud of what I do for them and, yes, a lot of it is selfish‹it's a way for me to constantly assess and reassess my place on this planet.” He readily admits to having white, straight, born-in-the-U.S.A. guilt. “Survivor takes me to countries where people are working their asses off to survive,” Probst states. “I have to do this [because] it feels good to give back. I think celebrity is a weird thing—you get free tennis shoes and sunglasses and front tables at restaurants, but it can also turn in the right direction by giving you a chance to raise monies for causes you believe in. I'm getting better at making it all a win-win.”

His most satisfying involvement with the AIDS culture abroad so far has been during Survivor: Africa (the third season), where the Masai and other tribes live in extreme poverty and where AIDS has hit the culture very hard. Probst convinced producer Burnett to include a segment (episode twelve) where one of the contestants, Lex van den Berghe, having won a GMC Avalanche truck, “allowed us to tie it directly into the incredible needs the people there
have: Lex won the truck and was given the ‘opportunity’ to help by driving AIDS medicines and supplies to this small hospital in Wamba, the sole hospital for those living with AIDS in the four connecting countries in East Africa.”
That success was the first step in Burnett’s involvement with the Glaser Foundation. The forty-two-year-old, London-born Burnett now sits on the foundation’s board of directors. “Frankly, it was an honor and pleasure for us to incorporate the Glaser Foundation and Wamba Clinic into the third season,” says Burnett. “It opened my eyes to the global impact of AIDS and how individuals had to find ways to fight it!” Probst drove with Lex to Wamba, where they “delivered toys and diapers and powdered milk, in addition to HIV test-kits and needed drugs, specifically nevirapine, which cuts the transmission rate of HIV from mother to child to about fifty percent, at a cost of under four dollars.” In a marvelous fit of generosity, the cast and crew chipped in a lot of money to out-and-out buy other non-medical items. CBS endorsed their actions, although it was Burnett who found ways of shaving the budget in order to leave supplies and money behind. He even got
his art department to volunteer to build open-air schools for the small villages. In a sad coincidence, one of the other contestants, Teresa Cooper, had had a brother die from AIDS and she helped out as well. Burnett made the choice to donate all the remaining props from the season to be auctioned off on eBay, which quickly became a tradition that to date has raised over $500,000, all the proceeds being donated to the Glaser Foundation. Strangely, even the contestants on the show must bid in competition with the public for the memorabilia. Survivor: Amazon, the sixth in the series, began running last year. But for Probst, the African experience will continue to stand as the best one so far, in large part because of his intense experience with those who have lived and died from HIV/AIDS.
Dale Reynolds interviewed filmmaker Chris Eyre for the January issue.

August 2003