What started as an ordinary night on Survivor 2017 ended in anything but ordinary. When this week’s easy choice to be voted out took an approach few could approve of we saw Tribal Council turned upside down and end without even requiring a vote.
On our way to the big conclusion at the end of the night there were still two competitions for the newly reworked tribes including a stack of pizzas for the winners and a handful of tears for the losers.
While Varner has openly apologized for his decision to reveal aspects of Zeke’s personal life it’s hard to see how he thought that announcement was going to help his game at all. Instead of going out strong we saw Varner eliminated from Survivor Game Changers after Probst asked if there was even a need to vote. There wasn’t.
As for the rest of the game, we had some fun competitions to watch and a pizza party back at the Nuku camp thanks in big part to Ozzy’s fast work in the Reward Comp. Check out all the photos below from this week’s Survivor 2017 episode.
Source: CBS
Credit: Timothy Kuratek/CBS Entertainment ©2017 CBS Broadcasting, Inc.
Tribal Council was heart breaking, it actually brought a tear to my eyes.
Will this episode go down in Survivor history as the first time ever that ended without even requiring a vote?
It was not a live show. Survivor production had the opportunity to completely remove this part. Surely Zeke was given the opportunity to decide whether this was aired or not. If he wasn’t, as sickening as what Varner did,(if it wasn’t scripted to begin with),then I place the blame solely on production for not editing this out, If Zeke gave his permission or it was scripted, then we were all duped into yet another show opting to use an episode of their show as a platform to further the LGBT agenda. I don’t enjoy being played. Which would be the better scenario?
1) This airing exactly as it occurred, and Zeke not having a choice about being outed, which makes Survivor production the real bad guy here, imo.
2) The whole thing being scripted and used to promote the LGBT agenda, and the joke is on us, even if Zeke is trans (not the issue).
3) Maybe a little editing occurred, still, Varner is actually a bigger a-hole than a lot of people thought, but enough editing that Zeke gave permission to allow it to air.
IDK, but there is more to this than we saw. That’s just my opinion. But I am ALWAYS skeptical; just my nature.
I agree KSJB / the issue I have now a days is every show must now have a LGBT player or trans gender / I really do not care if they are gay – lesbian – transgender but why why why do we have to have it as a “Big Thing” and expressed – I have an issue with the LGBT community who cry we are gay and proud and don’t want to be treated differently but we need a Parade and a Party because we are gay but don’t treat us different – grow up people – if you are gay fine who cares. Go about your business just like everyone else in this world. Okay sorry – I probably went way off topic and into a totally different rant.
I am glad that they got Varner out though because I sure did NOT want to see Ozzy go.
Thank you Varner for taking the vote away from Ozzy.
Ozzy looked a little worried for a hot minute. I didn’t want him to leave either. IMO, Varner is simply not a nice guy. I think his true character was shown, even if he was payed a little more to make a dramatic, drawn-out scene to promote an agenda which he was aware would result in a unique situation of the no vote and his departure. And of course, I don’t know what was “real” and what was planned. Probst made sure to relay his disgust of the situation. I’m just unsure what was and wasn’t scripted, but be sure, this all conveniently played into the LGBT agenda with purpose, imo. Like you, I am having issues with it CONSTANTLY being in our faces, especially if I feel like I’m being fooled/played. Suspicious me!!
K, like any Reality Show, they are owned by Production once they signed the contract. Production decides what to air. (for creative purposes, promoting agenda, what sells, political, etc.) They can even ask them to re-enact the scene…so they have no control….and how’s your weekend?
When you go on a reality show, you need to expect that the world will see what happens in reality. For anyone, there is always a chance in life, no matter where you are or who you are with, something may come out. The bigger the personal thing you choose not reveal, the more it will affect the situation when it becomes public. I did not need to know this about Zeke, but it is what he is. He entered the game, he will need to live with the consequences. Actually it may have been Jeff Probst’s fault they showed all of it. They could have edited it out had he told the tribe they needed to redirect the discussion then actually taken a vote. There was not a lot to edit when most of the discussion happened to involve the disclosure.
Zeke was on a talk show today production knew he is trans and left it up to him to decide if he wanted to tell or not when all this went on on tribal he did give consent to be used on tv
Thanks for the info, ellablue. I just got home and am trying to catch up for the day. I was more upset at the thought that production would air it without Zeke’s consent than I was at Varner.
I enjoyed reality shows so much more when I naively believed it truly was reality, thoughts of re-enactments never entered my mind, and the thought of production intervening or interfering was not a possibility, because, after all, that wouldn’t be fair. I had a light bulb moment when I started using a computer in my old age. Now, the more I understand about them, the less I enjoy them.
Thanks, Cy. You always come through and explain things very intelligently and respectfully.
Call me gullible but I didn’t feel as if Tribal Council was staged at all. Jeff Probst seems like a decent human being and if Zeke did not feel comfortable being outed by Varner that it would not have been shown to the viewers. The rest of the tribes reactions seemed very genuine. Just my opinion.
You didn’t tell him how your week-end was. I love you…
Yeah, Ozzy himself said during interview, they had to shoot the scene where he found the idol, because it was not dramatic enough when he found it originally (raw footage). lol ..Good to see you here K, and thanks for the compliment.
Oh no. Not staged. This all happened..
So Survivor is staged eh? I for one would rather not know that “ignorance is bliss”. It’s totally ruined the excitement of the game for me, too bad, I’ve enjoyed it for so many years. Why bother watching if it’s all fixed :-(
Hey, Sha. Ready to put your cowgirl hat on? I swear I didn’t remember reading that question about my weekend. I must have been in a hurry, as usual. You know I love you, too. :D
This was a good interview, apparently this situation was NOT staged “Survivor’ host Jeff Probst responds to transgender outing backlash
Yahoo News Katie Couric”
I don’t understand the hand-wringing. While Varner took a beating for outing Zeke, what he did was provide valuable info, consistent with the nature of the game. The players did not know before this, that they were actually competing against someone who is physiologically a women. This is important knowledge for the immunity challenges, etc
What I wanted to know was how Varner knew there is an article in peoples magazine that he states that he had a feeling he was trans and he just blurted out
at tribal
yes you can clearly see Jeff was shocked and he has been very vocal about all of this
Interesting. I just assumed Zeke had confided in him. Either way, what Varner did was disturbing, although I’m hearing, not sure, that Zeke gave production permission to air it. It’s just difficult to know what to believe about it all. It’s television.
I like to think that at least Survivor its keeping its integrety I love Jeff I think he is genuine but like u say at the end of the day its television and to any show ratings is gold
I think that Wednesday’s episode was very telling in a number of ways. First of all, it showed what kind of person Varner really is. Secondly, it showed that Zeke is not interested in being the ‘token’ transgender person. Lastly, it showed that Survivor was not aiming to exploit Zeke’s transgenderism. If they were, they would have done so in Zeke’s previous season. For me, it appeared that they showed things as they unfolded and handled it very well, allowing his tribe mates to voice their disgust at Varner and their support for Zeke and giving Zeke time to collect his thoughts before Jeff spoke to him.
My primary and deep disappointment with this episode is the fact that Jeff moderated the reaction of the players while inserting what was (at the time) a false fact. That is, Varner was accused of outing Zeke to the world, and punished for it by being (essentially) kicked off the show. This treatment of Varner was unnecessarily demeaning, because (among other reasons) the reality is, he outed him only to the local group. When it was said (in tribal) he outed him to the world, don’t you feel bad (etc), it was as if the distinction between the present and the future was being erased, like what happens in sci-fi movies. This manipulation of present and future into something that is supposed to look to the viewer like one current/simultaneous event is the real issue with this episode.
Another source of disappointment . . . After Varner is punished for something that had not yet happened, the victim of this not-yet-happened event and the producer collaborate on the actual event. This in my opinion is what “staged” must mean.
They all signed up for this..and we get to see how they make a fool out of themselves. Good or bad…I think it’s awesome. lol
It’s why we keep watching for sure
I just read where Varner was fired from the Real Estate Company who employed him on Thursday morning.