Survivor host Jeff Probst has revealed the special gift he gave the entire Season 50 crew that "captured the essence" of the long-running CBS reality series.

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When Survivor's production team was preparing to film the show's milestone season that premiered in February, Jeff, 64, told People that he set out to find a way to thank the crew for all of their behind-the-scenes hard work.

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While crew members typically receive a hat or jacket each season, Jeff explained how he wanted to honor Season 50 with a more unique gift that felt "individual and personal."

After asking family and friends for ideas, he said he kept coming back to dog tags.

"I wear one every day that has the day I got married. It says, 'Dance with me,'" Jeff revealed to the magazine.

"I have a personal connection to a dog tag, so that probably was some influence. But I also appreciated that with a dog tag you could truly make it individual and unique."

Jeff said he spent several days looking for an artist on Etsy to make him custom dog tags in January 2025 -- and he ended up stumbling upon Heavy Metals Studio in Florida.

At first, Jeff, who chose not to identify himself, asked the company to make a sample dog tag with the phrase "Celebrate 50." He also did not inform them this would be a gift related to Survivor.

"I didn't want the name of the show to influence anything. I just wanted to see [the company's] pure interpretation of the idea," Jeff recalled.

But once Jeff placed an order for hundreds of dog tags to be made in just a few short months, the sisters behind the company apparently put the pieces together on their own.

Jeff ultimately asked the company to create 450 distressed and stamped metal dog tags that read "Survivor 50" and were individually numbered on the other side.

The completed dog tags were shipped to Fiji in early April, according to People, and crew members -- ranging from microphone operators to laundry staff -- received them on-location before filming commenced.

"When it came to handing them out, we wanted it to reflect how we see ourselves, which is we're one team," Jeff explained.

"So there was no assigning of numbers and no hierarchy based on seniority. We put all the tags in one big box, and as crew members arrived in Fiji, they just reach in and grab one."

Jeff continued, "Fittingly, a brand-new crew member pulled number one, which really said it all. It doesn't matter if you've been here one season or all 50 -- you're a part of the team."

Jeff said the dog tags were a gift for the crew and so he chose not to pick one for himself.

However, the crew secretly messaged the same Etsy business to create a 14k gold dog tag for Jeff, returning the favor.

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"That really meant a lot because it was the completion of our team," Jeff noted.

"And I can't say that enough. That is what it feels like to work on this show -- it's never about any one person. It's always about the entire team."

Jeff added, "Something about these dog tags, which were all antiqued and distressed and all hand-stamped, kind of captured the essence of our show, of our crew, of base camp, of everything it takes to make Survivor."

Probst admitted that filming Survivor 50 was the "most personally joyful time" he's "ever had" doing "anything work-related" in his life.

"I was genuinely celebrating every day," Jeff shared.

"I was full of gratitude that our show was still on, that we could still make it, that people would still show up to play. Then I'm looking around, and I've got this crew, and they're working their ass off every single day and every single one of them smiling all day."

Jeff acknowledged how it's important to "take a moment to celebrate" special occasions.

"When [my] kids were little and something special in their life would happen, they would accomplish something, I would always go get a cake," Jeff recalled.

"At first, they thought it was absolutely ridiculous. They said, 'Are we going to get a cake every time we do something really significant?' I said, 'Yeah, because you have to take a moment to celebrate.' It's always been important to me because we move at such a fast pace."

Jeff said it's especially easy to move quickly in Hollywood when the network wants the next episode and the next great idea.

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"I just like to remind our crew it is okay to take a step back and say, 'I'm proud of that challenge I just built,' or, 'I'm really proud of the episode I just produced,'" Jeff said,

"So that's what 50 was for me."

Survivor 50 just aired an episode in which a pair of castaways was voted out: Benjamin "Coach" Wade and Chrissy Hofbeck. Rizo Velovic called the pairs twist the "biggest" Survivor twist of all time.


About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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