The fifth episode of Survivor 48 made history, but not for the reason many viewers may think.
Titled “Master Class in Deception”, the episode has already made headlines for the touching moment between players Eva Erickson and Joe Hunter during the immunity challenge, which led to Eva revealing her autism diagnosis to the cast.
However, this episode is also one for the books for an entirely different reason. Episode 5’s tribal council is the first time in US Survivor history that resulted in a 2-1-1 vote. When the votes were finally revealed in the episode’s goodbye message, viewers learned that Mitch Guerra voted for Saiounia “Sai” Hughley, Sai voted for Chrissy Sarnowsky, and Chrissy and Cedrek McFadden voted for Bianca Roses, who lost her vote after Episode 3’s Advantage Journey.
While viewers were originally led to believe that it would be either Sai or Chrissy who was voted out, an entirely new plan was hatched not too long before tribal council. After Cedrek made it clear to Bianca that he was not going to go with Chrissy and Mitch’s original plan to vote for Sai, Bianca felt compelled to reveal to him that she didn’t have a vote at this tribal council.
Of course, Bianca was hoping that this revelation would lead to Cedrek going along with the plan to vote out Sai, but this revelation would prove to be the final nail in her coffin. While we didn’t see it happen on-screen, at some point, Cedrek was able to pull Chrissy into a new plan to vote for Bianca. With the other members of their respective duos voting differently, these two votes would be enough to send Bianca packing.
While the 2-1-1 vote is a first in US Survivor history, it is not that much more common in other Survivor franchises. In Survivor South Africa’s 9-season run, a 2-1-1 vote only happened once, when Tyson Zulu was voted out at the final four after a miscommunication about where the votes would be heading.
A 2-1-1 vote isn’t much more common on Australian Survivor. So far, there have only been two instances of this happening in its 12 seasons, though the franchise is ongoing. In the first iteration of Champions vs. Contenders, fan favorite Shonee Fairfax would be voted out at the final four in this way. Then in the first Brain vs. Brawn season, Cara Atchinson would find herself facing the same fate, also in the Final Four.
With this knowledge in mind, the 2-1-1 vote in Survivor 48 is the first time in all three franchises that the 2-1-1 vote did not happen in the final four. Cedrek, Chrissy, and their tribemates all find themselves making history as being a part of an unprecedented tribal council with an unlikely outcome, and an even more unlikely record.