'Survivor' Premiere: 'Game Changers' To Include Vote-Altering Twist, More Rock Draws Coming? [VIDEO]
There's a huge new twist on Survivor: Game Changers that may dramatically alter the strategic gameplay.
A long-standing rule in Survivor is changing with season 34. Since the very first season of Survivor in 2000, one of the rules for Tribal Council is that in the event of a tie vote, a revote is conducted. Castaways then have the opportunity to change their votes to ensure someone is eliminated from the game.
Survivor: Game Changers is doing things differently. Instead of a re-vote, the contestants immediately go to a tiebreaker, in the event of a tie. This is where fellow castaways can discuss which of the people who received those votes goes home. If they don't come to a conclusion, they have to draw rocks, where the people who received votes automatically become safe!
Rock drawing has only gone down three times in Survivor history, at the Final 4 in Survivor: Marquesas, the Final 6 in Survivor: Blood vs. Water and the Final 10 with Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X. Meanwhile, re-votes are typically used to flush out Idols or protect themselves against someone in a minority alliance who might play one. If a majority alliance has enough people, they can split the vote between two people initially and then on the re-vote place all of their votes on the person they want out.
Survivor host Jeff Probst revealed to Parade why they decided to make this re-vote change and how this will keep castaways on their toes even more.
"I realized last season that they're getting this free look into the future," Probst explained, of re-votes. "They want to know if somebody has an idol, and we have enough people in our alliance that we can actually split the votes for free and change them on the re-vote. And nothing on 'Survivor' should be free. The emphasis on the word 'free' is what stood out to me. They didn't have to pay for it. 'Survivor' is a game in which everything should have an invoice. Every single decision you make should come with the risk of costing you something. Now, it will. If you want to know if somebody has an idol, you're going to have to be willing to risk the consequence that if you don't [make the move], you might find yourself in a tie-breaker and you might go home."
Survivor: Game Changers premieres Wednesday, March 8 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.
