Survivor 50 was a milestone season for the OG survival competition show. Because of this, Jeff Probst wanted to find a way to honor the production’s beating heart — the crew. So he got them a unique crew gift to show his appreciation for all their hard work.
Crew gifts for Survivor are usually jackets or hats, but this time, for such a landmark season, Jeff wanted something more special. Jeff said he was looking for something “individual and personal” to commemorate such a milestone.
The Survivor host gifted his crew custom dog tag necklaces
In the end, he kept coming back to custom dog tag necklaces.
“I wear one every day that has the day I got married,” Jeff shared with PEOPLE. “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 looked on Etsy for the perfect artist and found them in Heavy Metalz Studio in Florida. He worked with them to create a personalized design for the special season. Needless to say, the artists, Amanda Vernor and Gina Thompson, who are also Survivor fans, were thrilled. They ended up making 450 metal dog tags that said Survivor 50 on one side and were individually numbered on the other side.
The finished products were sent to Fiji in April, and crew members received them when they arrived for filming.
“When it came to handing them out, we wanted to reflect how we see ourselves, which is we’re one team,” Jeff explained. “So there was no assigning of numbers and no hierarchy. We put all the tags in one big box, and as crew members arrived in Fiji, they just reached in and grabbed one.”
“Something about these dog tags, which were all antiqued and distressed and all handstamped, kind of captured the essence of our show,” Jeff explained. “Of our crew, our base camp, and everything it takes to make Survivor.”
The crew was so touched that they reached out to Heavy Metalz Studio and had a special 14k gold dog tag made for Jeff, too. Now everyone has a very special reminder from a very special season.
Survivor is available to stream on Paramount+.
TELL US – DO YOU LIKE JEFF’S UNIQUE GIFT IDEA?
