A week after winning the inaugural Emmy Award for outstanding reality host, Survivor's Jeff Probst is still staring incredulously at the statuette in his living room.
"It didn't hit me 'til the other day," Probst tells PEOPLE. "I came downstairs and I had my tux still slung over the couch and the Emmy still sitting on a coffee table with a piece of paper with my name on it."
Adds Probst, "We won an Emmy a few years ago for the show but this one, as an individual award, it feels good. I am so proud of it. I'm not embarrassed to say I left it out on the coffee table!"
At one of the after-parties on Sunday night, "Kristin Chenoweth and I hung out with Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka and they were so gracious," Probst says.
Other well-wishers included his fellow nominees. The day after the show, Probst says, "Ryan [Seacrest], Howie [Mandel] and Tom [Bergeron], all three called me and each one said, 'You deserved it.' That meant as much to me. These guys know the kind of work we do and they made it feel Okay."
But now Probst, 46, is relaxing at home in Los Angeles while the current season of Survivor, set in Gabon, Africa, is on the air. "Gabon was actually a very hard season," Probst says. "But things just played out that there was a group of people who were likeable and endearing in an almost naïve way, and there was another group that was take-no-prisoners."
The host adds teasingly: "Will a nice person win or will a mean person win? The season is a slow burn but there is a definite build to the end!”
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