Survivor: What’s the point of making the rules so arcane?

Jeff Probst likes to talk about “the rules of Survivor,” but the more complicated rules are ones that fans still don’t know about. Why?

All this started when Entertainment Weekly tried to squeeze a case out of Jeff Probst that will probably never come up again, when it comes to final jury votes possibly being split evenly three ways. But does it matter that fans do not know every single plan that the Survivor powers that be have?

Not really, and there’s a reason for that, too.

Every so often, something ridiculous happens in Survivor, and each time, Probst carefully walks us all through “the rules of Survivor“. To look back to Game Changers ahead of the Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers premiere, Cirie had two “rules of Survivor” moments. One led to her leaving the game. The other led to her not being able to use Sarah’s advantage despite holding the piece of parchment that explained it all.

Speaking of, Survivor does explain the rules to its players. Take a look the next time someone unwraps an idol. See that piece of parchment that comes with it? It has the pertinent details on it.

The producers pretty clearly think of as many ridiculous cases as they can, precisely for this reason: it makes the show really dramatic when they come into play. There’s a feeling of tension as things are revealed, before Probst steps in. Even a more common “rules of Survivor“-type moment, pulling rocks to break a tie, is treated with the utmost dread by the vast majority of players.

(The most common, of course, is playing an idol, which is also scary for some players.)

But if Survivor came right out and explained everything, the show would get bogged down considerably. It’s as simple as that. Probst basically says as much in the attached video in EW‘s article. Pulling the curtain back, so to speak, wouldn’t provide the same punch for the viewers as the current method of only revealing the rules when it’s necessary or intriguing to do so does.

Is this EW article a hint that another moment like this might surface in Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers? Maybe not. Maybe it’s just another question that will become part of the great unknowns of Survivor.

Next: The opening credits of Survivor season 35

For now, we’re content knowing what we know and knowing that we don’t know everything.