Survivor Ghost Island producer details craziness behind tie-breaking vote

Despite all the preparations for an unlikely Final Tribal Council tie, Survivor Ghost Island producer Matt Van Wagenen talks about the chaos behind that moment.

The long, trudging road to the end of Survivor Ghost Island was saved from complete boredom by a historic, unprecedented moment in the show’s history. 18 years and 36 seasons of the show have come and pass, and only in the final moments of the most recent filmed episode did we see a winner vote come down to a tie.

Though we learned the results immediately on television, the moment the players headed to the voting booth to the release of the episode was almost 11 months in the making. To get a better perspective on that wild moment where time stood still for the filming crew, Entertainment Weekly talked to producer Matt Van Wagenen about what went down during that moment.

It’s hard not to feel cynical about the twist-heavy nature of the show lately, but one thing that’s clear is the team is still super psyched to work on the show. Even as the crew scrambles to unfold a hypothetical into action for the first time, it’s fun to hear the childlike giddiness surrounding that tie, wondering what to do and even Jeff Probst gets in on the madness.

More importantly, because having just one deciding vote in a Survivor finale presents all sorts of complications concerning spoilers, Matt provided a pretty ingenious solution to hide that fact. It stayed in a vault for almost a year, but getting it in there required grabbing some old mail and shoving with the singular vote into an envelope did the trick.

Next: Survivor: Ranking 35 seasons

I recommend reading the full interview to get the full scope of what that moment meant for the show’s producers. It helps provide context for the current direction of the show, as the big moves and big moments help galvanize a crew that is on the tail end of their time out in Fiji during a filming cycle.