Editing Survivor (franchise) (section)

===Tribal Council===
Tribal Council is a special production stage located near the tribe camps. Tribes sit across a fire pit from the host while the jury members, if present, sit off to the side. A small alcove adjoins the structure for the players to cast their votes in private. Tribal Council almost always serves as an episode's finale.

The first time each player attends Tribal Council, he or she takes a torch and lights it from the fire pit while the host reminds them "fire represents life in this game". During the jury phase of the game, the host will call in the jury after the tribe is seated and remind jurors they are there to gather information but not speak or otherwise participate. The host will then proceed to ask the tribe questions about what has transpired since their last visit to Tribal Council (or the beginning of the game). The host asks these questions in hopes of bringing tribal dynamics to light, and players in precarious situations may reveal information or bargain with others to keep themselves in the game. Though the viewing audience typically sees only a few minutes of each Tribal Council, some have gone on for hours.

The host ends the formal discussion by declaring that it is time to vote. During the second half of the game, the host then gives the immunity challenge winner(s) the choice to keep their immunity necklace for themselves or give it to another player, then reminds players they cannot cast a vote for the player(s) who finally end up wearing the necklace(s). The host then directs the players to vote in the alcove one-by-one. After writing their vote, each player has the opportunity to address the camera before placing their vote in the ballot urn. Once all players have cast their votes, the host collects the urn, tallies the votes, and returns to the fire pit with the urn. Beginning from '''''Survivor: Fiji''''', the host then offers players the opportunity to play an immunity idol prior to announcing the votes. If a player produces an idol, he or she must declare which player the idol protects (typically a player can protect anyone, including themselves). The host then confirms if the idol is legitimate, and if it is, the host declares that any vote for the protected player will not count. The host then reminds the tribe that once the votes are read, the decision is final, and the eliminated player must leave the Tribal Council area immediately.

When enough votes have been read to eliminate one player, any additional votes remain unread and unknown to the players (in almost all cases, the leftover votes are also for the eliminated player). The host instructs the eliminated player to bring their torch, snuffs it out, and tells the player that "the tribe has spoken" (or in rare cases, a fitting variation thereof) and "it's time for you to go." As the eliminated player walks off, the host makes a final observation before telling the remainder of the tribe to "grab your torches and head back to camp" and wishes them a good night. Occasionally, tribes who have not made fire on their own or earned it in a challenge will have to douse their torches or leave the torches at Tribal Council.

The eliminated player has a final confessional to express their feelings about being eliminated before they are sequestered with other eliminated players until the end of filming. Later eliminated players join the jury who will decide the winner. Jurors are sequestered until the end of the Final Tribal Council. While sequestered, jurors cannot discuss their jury vote or experiences with other jurors to prevent any possible cooperation or collusion from subgroups within the jury. After casting their vote at Final Tribal Council, jurors also cannot discuss their vote with anyone lest they spoil the surprise reveal at the season finale.

Ties occasionally occur. Normally, the players vote a second time with only the tied players eligible for elimination. If this second vote does not break the tie, various tiebreakers have broken the stalemates. These tiebreakers have changed throughout the seasons. In ''[[Survivor: The Australian Outback]]'' and ''[[Survivor: Africa]]'', stalemates were broken by eliminating the player with the highest number of previous votes cast against them. If the players had the same number of previous votes cast against them, as seen in ''Africa'', the tie was resolved by a sudden-death challenge (in this case a trivia quiz about nature), with the loser eliminated. This soon led to alliances choosing a player to eliminate based on their vote history over other relevant factors. To put all players on even ground in subsequent seasons, the non-tied voters have several minutes to deliberate and must come to a unanimous decision about which tied castaway to eliminate. If they succeed, their chosen castaway is eliminated; if they do not, all non-immune deliberators draw concealed rocks from a bag, and the castaway who draws the odd-colored rock is eliminated. This encourages players to change their votes to avoid a stalemate and punishes deliberators for stalemating. The rock-draw tiebreaker has occurred three times: in ''[[Survivor: Marquesas]],'' ''[[Survivor: Blood vs. Water]]'', and ''[[Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X|Survivor: ''Millennials vs. Gen X'']]''. In ''Survivor: Marquesas'', the rock draw occurred with four players remaining, and the tied castaways were both involved in the deliberation and eligible for elimination; host Jeff Probst later revealed that this was a mistake and that this tiebreaker should only be used when six or more players are involved.<ref>{{cite magazine | url = http://www.ew.com/article/2005/02/08/jeff-probst-survivor-seasons-i-loved-and-hated | title = The Host Has Spoken | date = February 7, 2005 | access-date = June 4, 2008 | magazine = Entertainment Weekly | first = Dalton | last = Ross | archive-date = August 30, 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090830083714/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1024612_3,00.html | url-status = live }}</ref> Following ''Survivor: Marquesas'', all stalemates with four remaining players have been resolved by a fire-making duel where the first tied castaway to build a small fire high enough to burn through a rope remained in the game. The fire-making tiebreaker was also used in ''Survivor: Palau'' at a Tribal Council where the losing tribe had only two members remaining.

====Final Tribal Council====
When only two—or, in later seasons, three—players remain in the game, the finalists and jurors convene for Final Tribal Council. The change to three finalists presents more of a challenge to the castaway who wins the final immunity challenge: while that person has clinched their spot as a finalist, they cannot unilaterally decide which of the other remaining castaways they will compete against for jurors' votes.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tvguide.com/special/fallpreview07/returning5a.aspx#survivor|title=Returning Shows|access-date=September 21, 2007}}</ref>

At Final Tribal Council, each remaining castaway makes an opening statement to the jury. One-by-one, each juror then addresses any or all of the finalists, asking questions or commenting on the finalists' behavior in the game. Jurors often ask questions hoping for answers that will help make their decision, while comments and speeches are generally an effort to sway other jurors. The finalists are usually free to respond to these questions and comments as they see fit, though jurors can expressly forbid them to respond. Beginning with ''[[Survivor: Game Changers]]'' in the U.S., the process shifted from each juror receiving the floor one-by-one toward a moderated discussion highlighting the show's three major tentpoles: "Outwit", "Outplay" and "Outlast". After the interrogation, finalists often have one last chance to make their case. The host then reminds the jurors that they are writing their choice to win (versus writing their choice to eliminate, as in all other votes) and, for the last time, declares that it is time to vote. One-by-one, jurors vote privately in the alcove. As with regular elimination votes, jurors can choose to address the camera to explain their vote. The host then collects the urn, and in most seasons, leaves the votes unread until a live finale months later, at the conclusion of the season's broadcast, where they read the votes publicly and crown the Sole Survivor.

Since the 41st season of the American version of the show, the structure of Final Tribal Council has been permanently changed. When the votes are cast now, Jeff Probst simply reads off the votes and announces on the spot who won the game. The reunion show also now takes place immediately after this vote at the FTC site, with all of the contestants sitting and talking over the season with themselves and Jeff.

At the finale of ''[[Survivor: Micronesia]]'', the only season to date with two finalists and eight jurors, host Jeff Probst reportedly had a white envelope containing the tiebreaker, but the exact nature of this tiebreaker is not known publicly, as a tie did not occur.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.realitytvworld.com/news/exclusive-amanda-kimmel-discusses-micronesia-losing-survivor-twice-7096.php | title = Exclusive: Amanda Kimmel discusses 'Micronesia,' losing 'Survivor' twice | publisher = Reality TV World | date= May 12, 2008 | access-date = May 12, 2008 | first = Christopher | last = Rocchio}}</ref> This contingency plan was also in place for three-way ties involving three finalists and nine jurors. At the ''[[Survivor: Game Changers]]'' reunion, Probst revealed that a two-way tie in a final three would be broken with the third-place finisher casting the deciding vote.<ref>''Survivor: Game Changers'' reunion show, CBS, May 24, 2017</ref> This first happened in ''[[Survivor: Ghost Island]]'' when Wendell Holland and Domenick Abbate each received 5 votes to win. Laurel Johnson, the third-place finisher, became the 11th and final juror and cast the deciding vote.

In [[Koh-Lanta|the French series]], ties between two finalists are resolved by crowning them co-winners, as seen in their [[Koh-Lanta: Bocas del Toro|third]], [[Koh-Lanta: Palawan|seventh]] and [[Koh-Lanta: Le Totem Maudit|twenty-third]] seasons.

====Evacuation and quitting====

Some players have been eliminated from the game by other means than being voted out. Castaways who suffer severe injuries or exhaustion are evaluated by the medical team which is always on call. The medical team may provide treatment and give the player the option to continue in the game, warning them of the health risks involved. However, if the medical doctor determines that the player is at risk of permanent injury or death and needs to be removed from the game for their own health, they will be removed and taken to a nearby hospital. In ''[[Survivor: Cambodia]]'', the producers were notified that one of the remaining castaways' children had been hospitalized, and the castaway was pulled from the game to return home and be with their family. ''[[Survivor: Kaôh Rōng]]'' has had the most evacuations to date, with three.

Occasionally, castaways who are not in need of medical treatment have decided to quit the game, without waiting to be voted out, due to physical or emotional exhaustion—either by making an announcement at a Tribal Council, in which case they are let out of the game without any vote, or by being recovered from camp after making their intentions clear to producers and being interviewed by the host. When a player leaves the game without being voted off, the other tribes are notified of the departed player's removal, and the next Tribal Council may be cancelled. After the players merge into one tribe, any who have been removed from the game by medical evacuation are still eligible to participate as jury members once the medical examiners deem them healthy enough to do so. Those that have quit the game voluntarily may also still be eligible for the jury and, if their reasons for leaving are considered sufficient, they may also still be allowed to make a farewell speech to the camera.