Survivor’s latest crop of castaways is eager to outwit, outplay and outlast—at any cost.

With season 49 of the CBS competition series officially underway, longtime host Jeff Probst revealed that the contestants had no problem turning their backs on their supposed allies in order to secure the $1 million prize.

“The back half of the game was the antithesis of loyalty and deep bonds,” he said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter published Sept. 24. “It was, ‘Whatever serves me in this very moment, this very second.’ And it made for a really fun season because the front half is really tough.”

Indeed, Jeff, 63, noted that the gameplay at the start of the season often left him “out of breath,” particularly as the cast formed deep bonds—or so it seemed.

“The front half of the game was almost like tattoos in terms of these alliances [that] were formed and people said, ‘I’m with them for life and I will never betray you,’” he explained. “And then the merge hits and the back half of the game, it was like, ‘Wait a minute, this turns out this is a temporary tattoo. It’s very easy for me to wash this off right now.’”