With three new tribes hitting the beaches of Fiji for another season of Survivor this week, pain was the name of the game.
During the opening challenge for Wednesday’s Season 48 premiere of the CBS reality competition series, contestant Kevin Leung suffered a dislocated shoulder, after which host Jeff Probst explained why the “dramatic” moment was cut from the episode after appearing in the teaser.
“Kevin kind of surprised me because I happened to be standing near him when he suddenly said, ‘I’m in pain, I’m in pain,’” Probst told Entertainment Weekly. “And I said, ‘Can you hang a second? Can you wait a second?’ And he said ‘No.’ I was like, ‘Okay, so he’s really in pain.’”
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He explained that the show’s Dr. Will used a green whistle on Leung, which is “a temporary pain reliever so [the doctor] can do something that’s going to be very uncomfortable without him feeling it.”
“It worked! He gave it to Kevin, took a nice deep inhale, and then he quickly popped it in without even really giving Kevin much warning and Kevin went, ‘Oh, instant relief!’” recalled Probst. “And he appears to be fine. I mean, today’s immunity challenge was really physical and Kevin was right there.”
Although Probst said the injury “was severe enough that we had to call in medical” and stop the challenge, Leung “did recover pretty quickly.”
“They said he was fine to carry on,” he noted. “It did hurt, and I think it limited him in the challenge, and we fully intended to put it into the episode, which is why we put it in the promo in the first place.”
Probst added, “And ultimately, Kevin’s injury didn’t directly impact the Tribal. If Kevin’s voted out, it’s not because of his shoulder. It wasn’t serious enough to impact him that way. So that’s why we removed that scene.”
Season 48 of Survivor airs Wednesdays at 8pm ET/PT.
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