If you follow me on twitter (I doubt it unless you are my wife or one of the 25 bots that follow me) you’ve already seen me tweet about this, but since it hasn’t occurred yet, here comes the blog.
Like many survivor fans, we have watched the game evolve over the past decade with the use of idols and advantages, some of which are good, other of which are trash, but I think the producers have missed an obvious one…..the public vote advantage.
The concept of this advantage is simple: at any point during Tribal Council, you can play this “card” and force a person of your choosing to announce their vote publicly. They have to stand up in front of everyone, write down who they are voting for and give it Jeff, who then reads it out loud and then puts it in the box.
Why does this advantage have value? Think about the people who consistently see themselves as a “swing vote”, they are forced to announce their vote and you have time to try and sway the other members of your tribe. Or you can use this on the question mark of your tribe. If you or someone in your alliance has an immunity idol, you know to play it and pull the Uno Reverse on everyone else.
There are examples every season where this knowledge would prove to be powerful. Hell, we’ve watched multiple people go home this season who were completely blind sided. And I’m not saying this prevents a “blind side” because it doesn’t, but I think this advantage allows for more organized chaos to occur which is what makes Survivor so exciting.
I’ll be honest, I think something like this is needed because the most recent additions to the game have been a huge flop. The producers (that includes Jeff Probst) need to stop overthinking the advantages/idols because the more they complicate it, the less people really care. Best example, the advantage that required a person from three different tribes to say a phrase which if said, activated an idol…..we never actually saw it activated. The other one that I dislike is the “risk advantage” which you have to accomplish something to get your advantage, and until then you lose you vote. The downside to this is the player obviously has something if they don’t vote at tribal. Sure, there’s a risk reward, but it negates a potential blindside if everyone knows something is up after that first tribal council where they don’t vote.
The secret to winning Survivor is knowledge, and knowing how someone is going to vote is the second most powerful thing you can know besides if they have an idol . So if knowledge is power, here you go, you hear that Jeff!
