Survivor 47 host Jeff Probst teases a falsely perceived showmance

Showmances have always played a big part of Survivor. Amber Brkich and Boston Rob Mariano rode their romantic connection on the island all the way to the final two on Survivor: All-Stars, while Dee Valladares and Austin Li Coon flirted their way to the final three on Survivor 45. On the flip side, Frannie Marin and Matt Blankinship’s celebrated nerdmance could not lift them beyond the early stages of the jury on Survivor 44, and there have been numerous couples over the years that have been targeted simply because their combined voting powers were seen as too big a threat.

No matter how an island romance goes, love connections in the game always garner a lot of attention by both players and viewers. With that in mind, can we expect to see a showmance on Survivor 47, which premieres Sept. 18 on CBS? Not this season, it seems, but we may possibly see something even more interesting: the impact of a falsely perceived showmance.

Entertainment Weekly learned this upon asking host and showrunner Jeff Probst if we should prepare ourselves for some Fijian flirting this fall. “No,” the host responds. “But, oddly, it’s an interesting question to ask because you don't have to be in a showmance in order for other people to suspect that you might be in a showmance. That's a really interesting wrinkle this season.”

Intriguing. Very intriguing. So which contestants will be the focus of this fake showmance? Check out the full Survivor 47 cast and place your bets now. But while we wait to see if you’re right, we also asked the Hostmaster General about whether another interesting wrinkle from last season of the show — the fact that we saw some old school Survivor spice last season with players getting into verbal arguments and (especially when being Applebee’s deprived) straight-up shouting — might be making an encore appearance.

Will there also be friction between tribemates on Survivor 47? Probst says there will be to some degree, but he also points to what he sees as one of the key differences between old and new school Survivor. “I think one of the biggest differences throughout the new era is the agency,” says the host. “Every player in the game has their own story. And so when you have 18 people who all have a very clear vision of who they are, who they want to be, what they want to accomplish, then they're not going to let anyone else get in their way. And that can create obstacles within a tribe.”

Probst loves the drama that friction provides, but he loves seeing if contestants can overcome it even more. “Often the most interesting question is: Can two players who seem at odds find a way to make those odds their advantage? Those are the layers that add to a great season of Survivor. You can't just look at it on the surface. If you have a situation where you have another player and you don't get along with each other well, you can obviously become each other's targets.”

But within that turmoil can become opportunity. “Becoming each other's targets is the easiest and obvious thing, and that's what everyone else will think,” Probst notes. “So if that's what everyone else is thinking, is there an opportunity to use this to your mutual advantage so you have the same shared interest? That's what I look for in a season. So what's happening on the surface is: You're at a challenge, and you lose, and one player's complaining about something that might be their truth and they might be on their way home. Or, this might be some sort of deception going on.”

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Wait, does this mean players might be serving up some straight-up phony baloney on Survivor 47? “I think you're going to see this season that the players continue to learn how to use this new era to their advantage and dig a little deeper than first blush,” teases the host.

And in that same spirit, we dug a little deeper to bring you the two exclusive Survivor 47 photos showing the host and cast in action that can be seen above.

Survivor 47 premieres Wednesday, Sept. 18 on CBS.