‘Survivor: Game Changers’: Jeff Probst Reveals A Huge Change In Voting [Video]
Survivor 34: Game Changers spoilers tease that there will be a major change on how the contestants vote, specifically how they break a tie vote. Entertainment Weekly reported that Survivor host Jeff Probst revealed that the show would not re-vote in the event of a tie. It could be a huge game changer.
How it works is in the event of a tie, the tribe will not revote. The tribe will immediately go to the tiebreaker without the chance to change your vote.
“The biggest change we’re doing this season is if there’s a tie at Tribal Council, there will not be a revote. There will not be a chance for people to change their votes. You go directly to the tiebreaker, which is openly discussing among yourselves who you want to get rid of. If you can come to a unanimous decision, then that person goes home. If you can’t get a unanimous decision, everybody draws rocks.”
Jeff explained that last season on Survivor, they realized that the castaways were given a “free look to the future.” If they thought someone had an idol, they could split the votes, flush out the idol, and change their vote. They were able to maneuver it to keep their alliance safe and flush out the idol. Under the new voting rules, they won’t be able to do that.
Jeff explained, “And nothing on Survivor should be free. The emphasis on the word ‘free’ is what stood out to me. They didn’t have to pay for it. Survivor is a game in which everything should have an invoice.”
“Every single decision you make should come with the risk of costing you something. Now, it will. If you want to know if somebody has an idol, you’re going to have to be willing to risk the consequence that if you don’t [make a move], you might find yourself in a tie-breaker and you might go home.”
Probst was quick to say that he doesn’t believe that more tie-breakers will come out from the new rules. The risk of having a tie keeps the Survivor game alive. There’s always that possibility that they will have to draw rocks and start a fire. However, it keeps the game fresh and alive.
“I don’t think it’ll result in more ties, but I do think ties will continue to happen because players have finally realized what I’ve been preaching for a decade: there’s only one winner,” Probst explained. “Why give up 39 days? Why leave your family, quit your job, lose all that income, for fifth?”
Jeff told Parade that this new twist could end up saving someone from being picked off or could hurt someone who is sitting in an excellent spot in their alliance.
“One would be, for instance: Imagine you are in a minority alliance. And you feel you’re dead. They’re going to pick us off one by one. And you guess right about where they’re going to put their votes, and you put one of your votes on your own alliance member, and you force a tie. And now you say, ‘We will not agree to any of us. So it’s going to be one of your alliance, or we will risk going to rocks.’ Game changer!”
Jeff Probst thinks the new voting rule will make Survivor much more interesting to watch. He chuckled and said if he’s wrong and the viewers don’t like the new voting rules, next season they will go back to the old way of doing it.
Survivor returns on Wednesday, March 8 on CBS at 8 p.m.
[Featured Image by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images]