As Probst explained, "That became the driving creative focus on Survivor 41. Every time I would talk with [executive producer Matt Van Wagenen], one of us would ask the other… 'Is it fun?'" That fun materialized in forms such as the goofy secret phrases involving broccoli, butterflies, and goats that players had to recite to get a hidden immunity idol.

A year later, producers are still having fun, and we have our first evidence of that in this exclusive sneak peek of the first few minutes of the Survivor 43 premiere, which airs Sept.

All that traditional Survivor opening footage you want and crave to get you jacked up for the new season is there for the having.

"I used to daydream about seeing my name up in the opening credits." And with that, producers slyly give him an old-school Survivor mini-credit sequence complete with the dramatic slow-motion footage and name on the screen, just like they used to do in the opening title sequences of yesteryear.

What makes that brief moment even more remarkable is that Survivor has eschewed the opening player credits for years now (along with other segments such as the "Previously on…) in favor of using that time to show more actual game footage.

The fact that producers can have fun with Owen's comment in an era in which they don't even air traditional opening titles proves they can knowingly wink at both viewers and themselves in this new era of the show and the game.