There was a severe medical emergency during Survivor 48, here’s why it wasn’t aired
Kevin's injury was far worse than we were shown
The premiere episode of Survivor 48 started this week, and it was certainly full of drama as it turns out there was an unaired medical intervention involving Kevin Leung we didn’t get to see.
During the opening challenge of Survivor viewers saw Kevin injure his shoulder whilst going under a muddy net but his injury was far worse than what was originally shown.
Kevin’s injury was so painful that the whole challenge had to be stopped and a medical team was brought in to pop his shoulder back into place.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Survivor 48 host Jess Probst explained exactly what happened with Kevin, alongside revealing what we didn’t see.
He explained: “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.’
“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.'”
He continued: “I slid the other players out of the way, called Dr. Will in, and at that point now you just lean in and go, ‘What’s happening?’ Because at that point you don’t know.
“Is this a serious injury that might result in him being pulled out, like Matthew had to be pulled out a couple of seasons ago, or is this something you can fix quickly like we did with Stephenie LaGrossa?”
Whilst the injury was shown in the teaser video for the show, it didn’t end up making it into the final episode, with Jeff revealing why.
He explained: “Kevin had a shoulder injury that was severe enough that we had to call in medical.We stopped down the challenge. They said he was fine to carry on.
“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.”
He continued: “This first episode is so packed that our very first cut was very long, and you have to get Survivor to time.
“And so you start asking yourself a series of questions, and the first one is: What can we cut that does not impact the vote?
“And that’s where your most painful cuts are going to come, but you have to be able to make them. 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.”
Still, it seems Kevin wasn’t injured badly enough to pull out of Survivor 48 altogether, so here’s here to fight another day!
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