Survivor Game Changers: Jeff Probst Confirms Change in Voting

Coincidentally enough, Survivor: Game Changers will feature the game changing as Tribal Council voting will not be the same.

With a group of all-returnee castaways slated for Survivor: Game Changers, a twist for the 34th season of the show was inevitable. Fans already got a taste of that when host Jeff Probst said in an interview that there is an extremely early tribe switch in the show. On Tuesday, however, fans were treated to an even bigger twist that will happen in Game Changers, this one concerning Tribal Council.

Again coming from Probst, the Survivor host revealed on Monday that a big change is coming to voting in Tribal Council. Talking to Dalton Ross of EW, Probst revealed that there will be no re-votes in Survivor: Game Changers in the event of a tie vote.

From the same conversation with Ross, Probst elaborated:

"‘One big twist we’re doing is at Tribal Council, if there’s a tie, there will be no revote,’ explains the host. ‘We will go directly to the tiebreaker. And at first you hear that and go, ‘Oh my God, what does that mean?’ It actually is not a significant change. All you’re doing is pulling out the middle section, which is the revote. You still have a chance to change your vote.’"

What’s interesting here is how this could affect the strength of various alliances or voting blocks, both pre- and post-merge. As noted by Ross, most re-votes result from groups trying to flush out an idol by splitting votes. In that respect, Probst is likely not lying to fans in saying that it’s not a significant change. If there’s a tie in that situation, castaways can still change their vote and send home whoever they’ve targeted.

That being said, where this could be a factor is if there is naturally a split vote at some point. In that case, removing the re-vote puts the players one step closer to drawing rocks. Though it came to that in Millennials vs Gen X last season when Jessica Lewis was sent home, that’s a situation that most players aim to avoid entirely. Subsequently, it’s conceivable that someone flipping on their alliance of voting block to avoid drawing rocks could become more likely when it comes to changing their vote.

Next: Jessica Lewis Discusses Survivor MvGX Rock Draw

Probst says that this change isn’t “significant” and there’s a chance that’s indeed the case. However, there’s at least a possibility and a foreseeable scenario where it could wind up being quite important in this season. After all, these players are “Game Changers,” so perhaps this change in Survivor is indeed something that will come into play.