The CBS survival competition show angered fans, players and former players over how it handles inappropriate touching allegations involving contestants Kellee Kim and Dan Spilo.
- Nov 22, 2019
AceShowbiz - Host Jeff Probst recently weighed in on one of the recent controversies featured in the current season 39. The long-running CBS survival competition show angered fans, players and former players over how it handled sexual harassment allegations involving contestants Kellee Kim and Dan Spilo. Now, Jeff says that the fallout brings change on the show.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Jeff addresses the incident in which Kellee claimed that Dan had a habit of physically touching her and invading her space without permission which was making her uncomfortable and affecting her game. "It's an unprecedented and unfortunate situation that is still very raw for a lot of the players and fans. We are all trying to learn from it," Jeff explained.
When asked if the production is planning to apply some changes on the show in the wake of the ordeal, he responds, "We will definitely be using the lessons learned from the Dan situation as a guide in how to handle similar situations in future seasons. We have already started discussing ideas for how to change things in the future."
He also details how he and the producers handled the allegations at the time of the show's taping which was 7 months ago. "When we met privately with Dan, we told him that his actions were making some of the women uncomfortable and reminded him that personal boundaries must be respected at all times. We also informed him this was an official warning," Jeff shared.
Last week's episode of "Survivor" saw Kellee telling producers about the alleged sexual harassment and that prompted producers to take the unprecedented step of intervening in gameplay and issuing a warning to Dan. Following the revelations, fellow contestants Missy Byrd and Elisabeth Beisel used Kelle's feelings to their benefit.
They said they felt uncomfortable with him in order to make him a target and that landed the pair in hot water for being insensitive. They had since apologized to the viewers but at the end of the episode, it was actually Kelle who was evicted. Dan, meanwhile, remains competing in the game.
Kelle previously shared in a separate interview with Entertainment Weekly that she had no idea that Dan getting a personal warning until she watched the episode. "If production was going to give Dan an official warning, they should have just pulled him from the game or at least informed me so that I was aware of how it might impact the game," she said.
