There's a motive why Survivor endurance challenges don't final as lengthy anymore.

Prior to now, gamers spent hours and hours battling it out in true exams of endurance and grit, like in fan-favorite Get a Grip, the last-person-standing problem spent holding onto an enormous pole with deep footholds. However as this week's episode of Survivor 48 confirmed, that's not doable. Whereas the long-lasting problem returned, it was made harder than ever with extraordinarily shallow footholds that hardly helped the competing gamers keep up. In consequence, the problem was over very quickly.

"This isn't an absolute rule, however for essentially the most half, in terms of endurance challenges, we attempt to maintain them constant from season to season," Jeff Probst stated on final week's episode of his On Fire with Jeff Probst podcast. "If it ain't broke, don't repair it."

However then Probst introduced within the very subsequent episode of Survivor 48 that they've made the Get a Grip problem harder each time it's used within the recreation. So what offers?

The host defined his contradicting statements on this week's episode of the podcast.

"I stated it's not an absolute rule," he identified with fun. "In order that's this case. Get a Grip is definitely a very good instance to take a look at how a problem was initially birthed, after which the way it advanced over time."

Probst revealed that Get a Grip was created by government producer John Kirhoffer after he watched "native laborers, and so they had been simply hanging off these bushes getting coconuts."

"He was mesmerized by it as a result of he thought it appeared terrifying, however they had been doing it so simply," Probst stated. "And so he went to the problem crew and the artwork division and stated, 'I believe we may do a problem right here,' and it turned Get a Grip."

First launched in season 9, Survivor: Vanuatu, it shortly turned a staple as gamers battled exhaustion (and typically the weather as a result of rain making the poles slippery) to outlast one another, typically for hours, hanging on for his or her lives. Fan-favorite Ozzy Lusth received it twice (and even got here near a 3rd win earlier than Tai Trang in the end beat him), whereas different iconic gamers together with Tyson Apostol, Denise Stapley, and Jeremy Collins have all triumphed in earlier seasons.

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"We begin doing the problem and over time it did result in some epic moments the place individuals are hanging on for hours," Probst says. "So you then begin to look at the problem a little bit extra analytically, and what we began realizing in a short time was the way in which it’s at present designed with the footholds, there’ll at all times be gamers who will be capable of keep up there for hours. So then it’s a must to ask your self, 'Is that what you need? What’s it that we wish from this problem? What's essentially the most dramatic, what's essentially the most entertaining model of this problem?'"

As a result of Survivor is continually evolving, they discovered a technique to make Get a Grip tougher and, in consequence, not final as lengthy. "Over time we began making it a little bit harder — not big modifications, they're incremental, making the footholds just a bit much less deep," Probst says. "And now it has advanced right into a problem that can first take a look at your concern of heights, as a result of once you don't have a lot of a foothold, now you probably have any concern of heights, it's instantly there as a result of it's a lot tougher to carry onto. And so now you're conscious of how excessive up you might be and that begins making you’re feeling much less safe as a result of you recognize you're going to fall sooner or later."

And it's not simply harder — it's additionally extra painful for the gamers. Enjoyable, proper? "Due to the smaller foothold, it's far more painful," Probst says. "So now you're attempting to work to get your toes or the aspect of your foot to supply any sort of stability that doesn't create much more ache."

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So future Survivor hopefuls, begin coaching your ft to resist that sort of ache now, as a result of Get a Grip isn't going again to the way in which it was. In truth, it would truly get even tougher!

"I'm going to exit on a limb and say, the present model of Get A Grip might be fairly near the place it should keep for the remainder of time," Probst declares. "Till, in fact, you play this clip in a future podcast and there are not any footholds in any respect anymore."

For extra from Probst on the episode, try the most recent installment of On Fire.

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