'Survivor' Season 35: Executive Producer Confirms New Final Tribal Council Format 'Is Here To Stay'
In all of its 34 seasons, "Survivor" has introduced, ditched, and kept new concepts in its quest to continually improve the show. And one particular change that gained positive response from the previous season will now become the norm in the succeeding installments of CBS' long-running competitive reality television series.
Executive producer Matt Van Wagenen was on EW Morning Live podcast recently to discuss the new Final Tribal Council format as well as his thoughts on the upcoming "Survivor: Heroes v Healers v Hustlers" season.
In the previously concluded "Survivor: Game Changers," host Jeff Probst introduced an open-forum type format in the Final Tribal Council in exchange to the standard Q&A that has been the norm since season 1. The new debate-and-discuss format has subsequently allowed for a more spontaneous, moderated, and smart interaction between the jury and the final three, and has thus hit it big with both the viewers and the contestants themselves.
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Wagenen has just confirmed that this format is "here to stay," at least in the season 35, which has wrapped up filming earlier this year, and season 36, which is currently filming in Fiji. He added that since they strive for a "very real experience," the discussion format seems to be a more fitting way for the jury and the contestants to air out and respond to each others' concerns, and thus make a much clearer decision on who should win that is not blinded by revenge, bitterness, or anger.
As for the upcoming season, Wagenen said that they were going for "a theme of how people are seen," and that the castaways have been chosen and grouped as Heroes, Healers, and Hustlers based on how other people perceive them, and not on how they see themselves.
"There is something about putting a label on someone, and very often you see that at first they might bristle," Wagenen shared. "But in the end, you see at the end of the season they are just players and those are labels and it's just a question of how are they going to react to those labels," he added.
"Survivor: Heroes v Healers v Hustlers" premieres on Wednesday, Sept. 27, at 8 p.m. EDT on CBS. Fans and those interested can check out the official trailer for the upcoming season below.
