The history of the split vote in Survivor

The most excitingTribal Councilsare the ones where players walk in and you as a viewer have absolutely no idea how the vote is going to turn out. Watching majority alliances start to crumble just at the thought of a hidden immunity idol coming into play or a fear that one of their own might flip is terrifying for players, but so exciting for fans at home.

When the majority alliance intentionally goes into Tribal Council risking their numbers by splitting votes between two people, there’s always a huge possibility that, rather than it being a strategic move for them, it ends with one of their own going home. So, though the split vote was ideated out of necessity, it ultimately transformedSurvivorinto the complex multi-layered risk management game we know and love today.

The origins of the split vote

But who was the first to think of the split vote? It was actually much later in the game than you might expect! Back in season 11,Survivor: Guatemala, the introduction of the hidden immunity idol created unprecedented chaos for majority alliances. Fast forward to season 13,Survivor: Cook Islands, when Cao Boi Bui revealed he had a dream where an old shaman lady told him how to defeat magical attackers by splitting resources into groups of three.

He then conceptualized the vision to apply to the game at hand and realized this means splitting a majority alliance’s votes between two targets to ensure someone outside of the alliance goes home while potentially flushing the hidden immunity idol. Either player on the chopping block had the ability to play an idol, causing the other player to go home after their votes were negated. Or, neither targeted castaway played the idol, causing a time that resulted in a revote between the two players, then the majority would just vote for the more favorable elimination. He called it “Plan Voodoo.”

It was genius! So genius in fact, that Cao Boi took the idea and presented it to his ally Yul Kwon. But unbeknownst to Cao Boi, Yul secretly possessed a hidden immunity idol and didn’t want the rest of the tribe to learn of a strategy that would potentially backfire on him at some point. So in recognizing the danger of Cao Boi, Yul convinced his alliance to turn on Cao Boi and vote him out that very night, never getting a chance to enact “Plan Voodoo.”

When did it finally work?

So the first proper execution of this strategy didn’t take place until Day 8 of the following season,Survivor: Fiji. Fearing a hidden immunity idol after Sylvia Kwan visited Exile Island, the Ravu tribe majority planned to intentionally divide their six votes between Sylvia and Anthony Robinson as a safety measure. The vote ended in a tie, with no idols being played, and on the revote the tribe sent Sylvia home.

The split vote then became a vital strategy to understand and implement, especially as twists and advantages started getting more prominent in the game. Now, in the new era, with smaller starting tribes (6 players on average), the split vote is much harder to pull off, though it’s more necessary than ever thanks to the addition of theBeware Advantage, Shot in the Dark, and the potential to lose your vote on a Journey.

We’ll see how game mechanics and advantages change in the new “open era” and whether or not the split vote will become an effective early strategy once more, or if we’ll continue to see majorities hope their target doesn’t have something in their pocket.

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