Survivor is a game of the mind, but it’s also a game of the body, and this week, the bodies get punished — hard.

This week’s episode is a physically brutal one, which Jeff Probst tells us is the most “scary hour of television we’ve ever done.” Several players are struck down by the blistering heat, the medical team is called in, and there could be evacuations from the game.

In this exclusive sneak peek clip, the players are digging through the dirt looking for three small bags in a state of “absolute exhaustion.”

“I’m dying,” one of them gasps.

Yahoo TV spoke with Probst about the harrowing ordeal, plus we got his thoughts on the season so far.

We know you don’t want to give too much away, but what can you say about this episode?

This is the most compelling, dramatic, and at times, scary hour of television that we’ve ever done. It was just a perfect storm of Mother Nature and physical effort combining for a very dramatic result.

From the clip and promos, it seems like there are several medical emergencies.

Yeah, medical is definitely involved.

Do you ever design a challenge and think: “This really is too much”?

We have a really thorough process for our challenges. Firstly, we draw them out, and then we workshop them in our art department. Then, we test them and rehearse them, and we’re modifying them at every stage, so by the time they get to the Survivors, they’ve been thoroughly vetted.

The challenge that happens in this episode is a challenge that we’ve done before — nothing particularly unique about it — it just happened to be the effort involved in the challenge combined with the intense heat and the exhaustion of the contestants led to this collision of elements. It was the perfect storm, and fortunately we have a really good medical team that’s on site 24/7, everywhere we’re shooting, they’re there. So, everybody’s always in the best of hands.

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As you get to the challenge, and the conditions — like heat, or torrential rain, or something — make it dangerous, would you modify it?

Oh, absolutely. Along the way of testing a challenge, if our dream team — which consists of a group of twentysomethings — was testing it and they are too exhausted or they say it’s too much, then we absolutely modify it. None of our challenges are designed with the intent to push anybody beyond their limit. It’s always designed to bring forth a hero or a goat, or force a decision, or create a crisis in terms of the tribe dynamics. But the challenges are never designed to put anybody in danger. When people see this challenge, they will not think the challenge was too much. The challenge was pretty basic.

Something similar happened last season, when Joe passed out at the end of a challenge. What was it like in the moment, on site, watching that go down?

It’s a very surreal experience to be simultaneously, the executive producer, who’s responsible; the host, whose job it is to guide the audience through; and a fan, watching it — all at the same time. So, all of those parts of me are working. For instance, last season, when we did the challenge with Joe and Keith, and it went so much longer than we had ever tested it — we tested, I think, it went for 30 minutes, and they went an hour and 15.

There are parts of you that are looking at it, going “Oh my god, this is amazing.” Then there are parts of you as the host saying “What’s the story we should be telling?” Then, there’s the executive producer going, “Man, what’s going to happen? And are we prepared for it?” And honestly, one of the things that’s comforting about Survivor is that we’ve been doing it for so long that we have great systems in place — we have a crew of 325, plus 100 locals that we hire, and I never worry about any of them, because we have evacuation plans and we can engage anytime we need, whether it’s for a contestant or a crew member.

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In these later seasons, do you feel like players are pushing themselves harder than before?

That’s a great question, and I think that’s the case. As the game has evolved, not only has the strategy evolved, but also the effort. There are people who have seen the show long enough, and I think they’re realizing that the show is there to test people and you don’t need to be afraid of it — you just need to embrace it. That’s why you’re seeing people like Joe pass out. It’s really interesting how, because Survivor has relatively few rules, the game is dictated by the people that are playing it. And they decide what’s appropriate, and that could be strategy, that could be physical effort.

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