Jeff Probst says Jon Lovett is one of the greatest storytellers ever on Survivor

There’s a reason certain players get the dreaded “purple edit” on Survivor. Named affectionately after Purple Kelly Shinn on Survivor: Nicaragua (who somehow managed to be in the game without hardly ever appearing on the show) the purple edit is, essentially, an invisible edit.

While fans sometimes attribute a purple edit to a player not doing anything in the course of the game, or not “popping” as a character on screen, more often than not, it comes down to something else: the player is simply not a good narrator.

Ever since Survivor ditched the weird Jeff Probst narration early in its run, the show has depended on the players to tell that story through their confessional interviews, and… well, some people are better storytellers than others. Players like John Cochran, Cirie Fields, Stephen Fishbach, Shantel Smith, and, most recently, Charlie Davis, dominated screen time not just through their actions, but with their words describing the action. The contestants that can narrate the tribe or alliance activity in both an entertaining and informative way are the ones producers lean on throughout a season. (Sorry, Cowboy Rick.)

Well, it seems host and showrunner Probst thinks they have found another all-time great in that department for Survivor 47 (which premieres Sept. 18 on CBS). And that stands to reason, seeing as how the person in question is a professional wordsmith and performer whose claim to fame is as a speechwriter and podcaster.

“Jon Lovett is one of the greatest storytellers that we will ever have on Survivor,” Probst says. “He's up there with Mike White. “This is a guy that wrote for Obama. He is a really amazing thinker and fascinating to talk to. And on a show like Survivor, where you rely on the players to be the narrators, having somebody like Lovett is just this beautiful gift to us, because no matter what the situation or how you pose a question, he will give you a compelling answer. That was the most exciting part of Lovett.”

And Lovett is not just out there spouting nonsense. “When you add into it that he's a massive super fan,” Probst continues, “and has studied this game from different vantage points, including a political point of view, meaning he's been in the world of politics so long, he can look at the politics of Survivor in a fresh way and explain it to the audience in a fresh way.”

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Of course, there’s the potential hurdle of being recognized by his tribemates and how they might react to a presumably wealthy celebrity competing for the same money as the hoi polloi out there, but the track record for celebrity players is actually quite good, with The Facts of Life star Lisa Whelchel and School of Rock screenwriter and The White Lotus creator Mike White both making it all the way to the final 3. Of course, neither jury awarded them the money, soooo…

“I think the biggest question for Jon is going to be going to be: Are there people that know him either from his face or his name?” notes Probst. “And how will he handle dealing with if somebody understands he is a celebrity in his own right and that he's obviously a very bright guy? That could be a big obstacle for him to get out from under early on. It could also be part of the toolkit that gets him very deep in the game. That's going to be on Lovett.”

The question then becomes: Can one of the greatest storytellers ever on Survivor talk his way out of it?