Jeff Probst reveals the one Survivor champ he couldn't get for Winners at War

Entertainment Weekly

“I can tell you that of all the people we wanted, I would say Cochran is the only one that would have been on the list (where) if he had said yes would probably have a spot on the show," Probst says of Survivor: Caramoan winner John Cochran. Probst also discussed with EW the casting process for Season 40. "Here’s how we came up with our 20. Once we started getting momentum and realized this could happen, then we took a big step back and said: Okay, let’s imagine we can get anybody — totally rechange our thinking. What do we want? And what we wanted was to taste a little of every era of Survivor.”