He also reveals the original inspiration behind a classic competition.

*Survivor *challenge producer John Kirhoffer wants to see an Ozzy vs. Jonathan water battle on season 50

He also reveals the original inspiration behind a classic competition.

By Dalton Ross

Dalton Ross is a writer and editor with over 25 years experience covering TV and the entertainment industry. *Survivor* is kind of his thing.

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February 11, 2026 11:15 a.m. ET

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Ozzy Lusth and Jonathan Young on 'Survivor 50'. Credit:

Robert Voets/CBS (2)

*Survivor 50* will be a battle between legends for the $1 million prize. But there’s another potential battle looming for the season (which premieres Feb. 25 on CBS), and this one is looming out in the water.

Ozzy Lusth has dominated in water challenges since his first appearance way back on season 13 (*Cook Islands*). But he may have finally met his match in the form of hulking season 42 returnee Jonathan Young. Jonathan is capable of far more than just carrying (and throwing) his entire tribe trough a water challenge, as he did on *Survivor 42*. He was also a member of the University of Alabama’s swim team during the 2013-2014 season.

Naturally, an Ozzy vs. Jonathan duel would be a delicious treat for players and viewers alike. Well, good news for both groups, because it’s also something the man responsible for designing the *Survivor* challenges, producer John Kirhoffer, desperately wants to see. Which means we should expect opportunities for just that to happen once the season kicks off.

** spoke with Kirhoffer in Fiji the day before filming began to get a sense of what sort of competitions might be store for season 50 and how they came up with the fan-voted options for the final immunity challenge. The producer, who has been with the show since the very beginning, also revealed the original inspiration for a classic challenge, and the most nervous he’s ever been during a contest.

John Kirhoffer being interviewed by Dalton Ross on 'Survivor: Edge of Extinction'.

Timothy Kuratek/CBS

**: You’ve been with the show since day 1 of season 1, so what's it like personally to be here filming season 50?**

**JOHN KIRHOFFER:** Of course, when you're celebrating a milestone like 50, you think back to season 1. And I remember so clearly being on the boat, leaving Pulau Tiga after this seven-day-a-week, early-morning-to-late-at-night crazy schedule and thinking, *Oh, please God, just one more. Let me do one more of these. This is such a cool group and this is such a cool show. I just want to do one more*. I'd never been on a show that went multiple seasons. I kept getting on things that get canceled or just end. So this has been the craziest. And I was always waiting for it to stop forever. *When's it going to stop?* And so I never take next season for granted.

**How did you want to approach season 50 in terms of challenges?**

Whenever we do a season with *Survivor* legends, you want to do classics. You want to see them do the things that maybe they've done before, or how does one superstar compare to another one. So to have Ozzy against Jonathan in the water? Wow! So the way we create these challenges are like “Wouldn't it be awesome if we had a matchup where it was head-to-head, Ozzy and Jonathan? What would that look like?” And last time we saw Coach and Colby together…

'Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains'. Robert Voets/CBS

**Let's talk about that, because I was there on the beach watching it on what was maybe my favorite day ever on *Survivor*. Even on TV you didn't get the full impact of Coach inch by inch moving Colby over. That was a really physical challenge and you guys don't do a lot like that anymore. How do you handle trying to recreate something like that?**

That battle in particular will never happen again in that way. But who knows where Coach and Colby are going to be going head-to-head on something. Who knows if they get put in the strength role, or do they go head-to-head on the puzzle at the end, or a balancing thing? So you don't know where it's going to come up, but we saw Coach school Colby. It was the Clubber Lang vs. Rocky thing. I think Colby went in not expecting to have to worry about Coach. And, all of a sudden, Coach was tuned up! Coach was ready for it.

And Colby was our original hero. Season 1 didn't have that hero. Our hero was a villain, but in season 2, Colby was the all-American kid from Texas — smart, good looking, and athletic. So I hope Colby does great this season. I really do.

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**Are you honoring the past by bringing back some of the best challenges of the first 49 seasons, which you've done before on all-star seasons, or did you want to hit them with stuff they'd never seen before?**

We are in a new era of *Survivor* and our challenges have evolved. We reuse a lot of elements that they have done before. And [challenge producer] Chris Marchand has been fastidiously going through everybody who is in the game and what elements they've done and what challenges they've done. And we can give a little reminder to Jeff like, “Hey, remember when he did this challenge and he won and he lost" or whatever.

An awesome part about season 50 is that in my job, I always have to look back at old footage to be like, “Hey, when we did that the first time, how did we set that up? How do we do it?” And then I just get down the wormhole. I've just spent 20 minutes watching the Stephenie stuff from *Guatemala* and it was awesome.

Stephenie LaGrossa on 'Survivor: Guatemala'.

Cliff Lipson/CBS

**How do you find the line of having it be really physical without getting your players injured?**

One thing is the Dream Team. We test and test and test, especially the more grueling aspects. And then we try to think, “Okay, we have these players that were top of their game 15, 20 years ago. They're in their 50s now, where is that line? And we still have 20-something-year-old people testing challenges. So then we just test. We scale back or we amp up if something's way too easy. Finding that line is just testing, testing, testing.

**That's interesting that when you have an older cast, you have to adjust accordingly like that. Was Jeff keeping in touch with you in terms of the casting and letting you know, “These are the people we're looking at?”**

That's one thing I am totally out of the loop on, which is a blessing many times. We put together *Survivor* challenges. These are *Survivor* challenges they are doing, so it will be balls out for everybody. We want to see our heroes work for it.

Jeff Probst and the cast of 'Survivor 50'.

**How did you feel about putting the final immunity challenge up for a fan vote?**

I was happy about it, because they were so different. We've done Simmotion, and it's a classic. And so I'm like, *Maybe people are tired of it.* But it is one of those things that anybody can win, and that's so important. And in all the final challenges, anybody should be able to win. There are physical elements to 'em. And it's no secret that when we do a final challenge, it's dexterity, it's grace under pressure. And so we just want to see who can win. But we had three very different styles of end game. And so yeah. I love that.

**How did you come up with the three different choices?**

We offered Jeff five or six different things and said, “Here are our favorites and this is why.”

**Tell me the ones that didn't make the final three that you were considering.**

Oh, I don't even remember exactly what those are. I know what the final three were. The Plinko one. I love that challenge. Ben didn't win a thing in his season, nothing. And I love Ben, so when he won that, it was gratifying to see him win. I think about Simmotion, I remember Jeremy winning that and broke down in tears on *Second Chance* because he loves his wife and his kids. And Jeremy's one of my favorite players of all time.

And then the other one was an obstacle course with a bunch of different things along the way. My favorite thing about a challenge is when there's a spot for multiple lead changes. Here's the strength thing, so the big strong guy gets ahead. And then here's a balance element, and then maybe they fall off and somebody with better balance then takes the lead. And then here's the throwing the ball into the thing or the sandbag. Another chance for a lead change. A puzzle or a skill at the end where somebody could come from way behind and then just nail it.

JT Thomas competing at Simmotion on 'Survivor: Tocantins'. Monty Brinton/CBS

**Obviously, you won’t tell me what won the fan vote, but were you surprised when you saw the results?**

They were close. I was surprised how close things were, and I'm very happy with the one that was picked.

**I voted for the Plinko one because I love Simmotion, but I just feel like we've seen it too much.**

**So tell me about the names of the challenges this season.**

The names may never even make it anywhere, but it's always been music and rock-and-roll. But this year we decided, let's name them after iconic moments on *Survivor* and iconic players on *Survivor*, because it is the season to celebrate this phenomenon. Other people have jobs. We're working on a phenomenon. It's still going. It's crazy that we're still going.

'Survivor 50' Cast.

**How long is it going to go for?**

I predict we're going to see 60. I hope I can hang in there and be here with it. I would love to be on *Survivor* until the end.  Or I would love for *Survivor* to just go way past my expiration and see the next generation take off when I retire someday.

**What is your favorite challenge out of the 50 seasons?**

I will go with one of the most basic challenges of all time: Get a Grip. I remember being in Vanuatu, and some of the best challenges happen when I'm just sitting there. It was after a long day and I was leaning up against a pickup truck having a Coke, and I saw a local dude with a machete. He sticks the machete in his shorts. He’s got no shirt, no shoes, and he just climbs up all the way to the top of this tree looking around. I could see him up there just checking out his home. And he wraps his leg around the tree and he whacks a coconut, chops the top off, and he starts drinking the coconut with his legs wrapped around the tree, holding a machete in one hand, a coconut in the other.

And I went*: That guy must be super fit. That's got to be tough.* And I went to the office and got my friend Dan Munday. We went outside, went up to some coconut tree, put up a little stepladder, climbed on, gripped on, and I said, “Dude, this is an endurance challenge.” And then we got some poles and we realized we needed some grooves. It took a couple times to get it right. We did it in *Cook Islands* and Ozzy won it in like three hours or something. We don't want it to last three hours. And so we finally tweaked it to what it is, but it is just pure endurance, pure will.

Survivor 'Get a Grip' challenge. CBS

So I love that one. And my other favorite is the final four in *Blood vs. Water* with the giant water slide. And then there were a series of rope obstacles on the side to collect puzzle pieces, and it was this huge staircase to the top. And when we first went down the waterside, it was huge. Our safety officer was like, “Okay, you have to sit facing down, cross your hands over your chest, and then push yourself to go down. Make sure we tell them to do that.”

BOOM! That was out the window. Tyson launched himself over that thing, Monica Culpepper launched herself over it, even Tina Wesson was throwing herself into it, spinning out, going down there. That might be my favorite challenge of all time — the big, crazy water slide. Too dangerous to do it again. It's also a tough thing to build.

Spit it Out challenge on 'Survivor'. Monty Brinton/CBS

**I still miss the water wheel one where they had to spit out the water.**

We did it twice on back-to-back seasons. The title came from the Whitesnake song “Spit It Out.” It was pretty dangerous. We had all of our safety protocols. Obviously, nothing happened. But that's the most nervous I've ever been, just because we're dunking people, they're upside down, blood rushing to their head. It seemed like such a neat idea and it looked great, and we did it twice. And I just thought: *You know what? We don't need to put anybody in that situation again. We got it. And let's not tempt it.*

*This interview has been edited for length and clarity. *

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