Aurora Starchild
3-time Survivor alum Malcolm Freberg keeps opening his mouth up about the show’s secrets and it’s leaving less and less to the imagination. He’s been known for putting the producers on blast and revealing manipulative editing tactics. While he’s admitted that they’re really starving and suffering, he seems to also thrive on breaking the fourth wall. Malcolm can’t stop talking and he’s done it again, this time telling Insider a whole bunch of secrets about Tribal Council.
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Here’s what he revealed, with the caveat that this is, of course, based on his experience. He also notes that his last time on the show was in 2017.
- The footage of all the castaways walking down the beach with their torches prior to the Tribal Council is staged. Apparently, everyone had to do it over and over again so that production could get the shot they wanted.
- It generally takes about two and a half hours to start filming Tribal Council. This is because of travel time to the set, getting mic’d, and needing to wait for dark.
- The seating arrangement at Tribal Council is totally staged. None of the contestants get to choose where they sit because they’re given a diagram ahead of time.
- It’s really difficult to gage how loudly or quietly to speak when giving your vote. Survivor host Jeff Probst coaches everyone on their volume so that others can’t hear them—and so the mic can hear them.
- Probst reminds everyone to speak up before voting starts so that they can’t complain that they didn’t get their say in.
- If you give “yes” or “no” answers instead of giving detail when talking to Probst, you’ll probably piss him off. Malcolm cryptically warns, “But I advise you do not, under any circumstance, piss off Probst if you go on the show.”
- It takes about fifteen minutes for the votes to be counted and revealed. But the show makes it seem like seconds.
- Anyone who survives Tribal Council gets less sleep than everyone else. This is because contestants need to do on-the-fly interviews about how they feel before they’re allowed to go to bed.
The 42nd season of Survivor plays on CBS. The season finale is set for May 25 at 8 PM EST.
