Longtime ‘Survivor’ host Jeff Probst explains the creation of the ‘Shot In The Dark,’ originally called a ‘Tribal Council Wild Card’

For viewers who were not a fan of the “Shot In The Dark” game mechanic introduced in Survivor 41, chances are episode six of Survivor 45 changed your mind…

The Shot In The Dark is a die that gives castaways a one-in-six chance of immunity in exchange for their vote at tribal council, but viewers have just one burning question – how does it work?

To start out the season, each and every castaway is given a Shot In The Dark die. In order to play it, the contestant will refrain from voting and instead insert said die into the voting urn, ultimately leaving their fate in the game in the hands of the Survivor Gods.

After playing their Shot In The Dark, longtime Survivor host Jeff Probst will pull out a parchment that either reads “Safe” or “Not Safe” prior to the reading of the votes. As one can assume, if the parchment reads “Safe,” any votes cast towards that particular contestant will not count – operating as a Hidden Immunity Idol – but if the parchment reads “Not Safe,” then the tribal council will continue as normal.

While the Shot In The Dark was used successfully by Jamie Lynn-Ruiz in Survivor 44 – despite being a rather lackluster tribal council — Kaleb Gebrewold stunned viewers, as well as his fellow castaways, last night (November 1) with his successful play, ultimately shattering a Survivor record that was set in 2015.

With Probst pulling out a parchment that read “Safe,” Kaleb earned himself safety when he needed it the most.

As soon as the longtime host began to read the votes, viewers quickly realized that every single one was for Kaleb, and therefore every single one was negated. Nullifying a total of eleven votes, Kaleb Gebrewold’s Shot In The Dark play made history as the most votes negated at a single tribal council, beating Kelley Wentworth‘s Hidden Immunity Idol play during Survivor: Cambodia (which negated a total of nine votes).

Needless to say, Jeff Probst was stunned and amused with how perfectly the Shot In The Dark worked during episode six of Survivor 45, chatting with Survivor: Edge of Extinction castaway Rick Devens about it on his On Fire With Jeff Probst podcast after the episode aired.

Given that the Shot In The Dark was implemented in 2021 – in Survivor 41, the first season to film post-pandemic – Probst read his original ideas for the game mechanic, which he jotted down in August of 2020.

According to the 61-year-old himself, “I remember when we were redesigning the game, we were during the pandemic… I had a note in my files about a wild card idea at Tribal Council — something that was always in play and could throw tribal into chaos at any given moment.”

He then proceeded to share what said note consisted of, ultimately sharing on the podcast, “It says, ‘Tribal Council wild card – a way to make every Tribal unpredictable. Each player has the option to mutiny any time before the vote, but it comes with strong consequence,’ so that wasn’t exactly where it ended up going, but I kept imagining this bag and I would always say to the team, ‘It’s like a bag, and you reach in it and whatever’s in the bag changes the game.'”

As we know, this idea morphed into the Shot In The Dark, which was executed perfectly by Kaleb during episode six of Survivor 45.

While it sounds simple enough, so much more went into its creation than viewers realize, with Probst revealing that they had to come up with all of the visual elements of the game mechanic as well, from the look of the bag to the look of the die – the size, weight, color, and more.

While bringing the Shot In The Dark to life was a great deal of hard work, “All of that stuff comes together so that when Kaleb goes up there, you see the parchment, you see the bag, he may have the ‘Shot In The Dark’ die in his hand, and you’re wondering, ‘What’s he going to do?'” In our humble opinion, the mystery aspect made last night’s tribal council even more thrilling!

With a history-making move in the books, using his Shot In The Dark in the way that Probst had intended upon its creation, chances are Kaleb Gebrewold is an even bigger threat than before.

How will the rest of his Survivor journey play out? Tune into new episodes of Survivor 45 every Wednesday at 8pm ET/PT on CBS to see for yourself.