Ever since JT Thomas stood up in tribal council four years ago to whisper to Brad Culpepper in Survivor‘s 34th season, Game Changers, the floodgates have been opened. In the six seasons since then, countless tribal councils have consisted of contestants getting up out of their seats and whispering unintelligible plans that may or may not alter who’s about to go home in the final minutes before the votes are cast.
What was once an exciting evolution has exasperated a confused audience and caused more frustration than understanding. It’s taken a while, but it seems the producers have heard the pleas for change and are making minor adjustments to have this aspect of modern seasons fit better into the show.
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The most recent episode of Winners At War appeared to make more of an effort than ever to actually let the viewers hear everything the players are saying to each other when they’re all walking around tribal council. It doesn’t sound like a major change on paper. All that happened was the editors finally put subtitles at the bottom of the screen during these scenes, but that small change is a big step forward. The whispering has consistently been a point where the show doesn’t explain what actually occurred. There’s a plan going into tribal that’s explained to the audience – sometimes – then there’s a ton of whispering at tribal council where the viewers don’t know what’s being said. When an entirely different plan is put into action and someone who seemed safe before is voted out, viewers aren’t able to piece together the puzzle on their own.
It became an issue not long after it began. Famously in Game Changers, the final seven tribal council where Michaela Bradshaw is eliminated was a complete mess that nobody watching could wrap their heads around. The show made little to no effort to explain it during tribal or even afterwards. Examples like that are what Survivor needs to avoid, and overall it hasn’t done a great job at that.
Sometimes the whispering is just smokescreen that the players are using, and other times it can evolve into players arguing openly. But when it is kept quiet and changing the direction of the vote, the show needs to let viewers in on what exactly is happening. Survivor storytelling always aims for this blend of tension, excitement and mystery, but it can’t forget to balance that all with the fact everything that happened should make sense by the time the episode ends. Viewers should be able to figure out what occurred and why, rather than be left scratching their heads.
There will still inevitably be confusion following some vote offs, but these are signs that the show is now aware of this as an issue. For the first time at the most recent tribal, Jeff was acknowledging how ridiculous it is that the whispering is a common occurrence now, and he was also quite playful in how he was commenting on it. Perhaps that could mean he may get to a point later where he’s shutting it down and telling the players to stay seated like many fans argue he should. Until then, at the least, Survivor is now making an attempt to let the viewers in on the last minute plans that are constantly being created right before the vote. The show should have been using those subtitles more frequently for the past several seasons, but better late than never.
Survivor airs Wednesdays at 8pm EST on CBS.
