Why Survivor should keep the new Final Tribal Council format

Survivor: Game Changers made a positive change to the Final Tribal Council format, and it’s one the show should retain for future seasons.

After 34 seasons of Survivor, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the people who run the show might consider some changes. Season 34 itself, Game Changers, had a lot of them. The game remained the game we’ve come to know and love, but the shifts helped produce, if nothing else, a very interesting season.

One change in particular stuck out, and it came at the very end of the season: having there effectively be a roundtable at the Final Tribal Council. Now, Jeff Probst and the other producers wisely put some guidelines on the topic by framing it around the show’s tagline or motto (which is not “The tribe has spoken,” but rather “outwit, outplay, outlast”).

This isn’t to say that the old version of the Final Tribal didn’t produce some great moments. Let’s face it. Without Sue Hawk’s “snakes and rats” speech, we might not be sitting here 17 years later talking about Survivor. Sure, the earlier parts of the season were pretty high quality. But that speech (and Richard Hatch’s win) helped propel Survivor even further.

But succeeding jurors often felt as though they were aiming for their own version of that moment. Reed’s “wicked stepmother” speech from San Juan del Sur sticks out to me because it did feel like someone just aiming for that big moment.

That’s why Game Changers‘ roundtable felt so refreshing. It let the jurors still lead and dominate the conversation. There were some great moments just seeing the jury deliberate basically in real time. It may have made it a little easier to predict how the votes would fall. However, this moment wasn’t the first time a juror made their preferences known. “Snakes and rats” itself basically made the case for Richard to win.

Additionally, it gave the final three a little more time to talk. The back and forth between the three of them and the 10 people on the jury actually led to some really excellent conversation points. What part of a player’s game deserves more credit: the physical or strategic?

Now, whether or not this would work with new players is a different question. Everyone on Game Changers had played the game at least twice. They had a lot of experience, in other words. Will new players who haven’t spent a lot of time out on the beach be able to go as in-depth? Perhaps not.

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However, it seems fair to give this format another try. It didn’t absolutely break the game. Instead, it made the Final Tribal as riveting as some of the others that took place over the course of the season.

Hopefully, Survivor: Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers will retain it.