What does Jeff Probst mean when he says he’ll ‘tally the votes’ on ‘Survivor?’

“I’ll tally the votes.” It’s as iconic of a phrase as they come on Survivor. After castaways put pen to parchment and seal the fate of a likely blindsided contestant, host Jeff Probst retrieves the voting urn at Tribal Council. However, before he does, he announces to the heart-palpitating group that he’ll tally the votes. But, what does that actually mean?

The host says it after every vote. And its for good reason — there is a literal meaning behind the line. During a recent episode of On Fire with Jeff Probst: The Official ‘Survivor’ Podcast, Probst revealed his process after votes have been cast, which directly relates to the quote in question. In short, Probst said he organizes them before he reads them. He wants to ensure that if someone receives a votes, they and everyone else know about it. Further, the reading of the votes is perhaps the most dramatic part of the episode. The order can heighten the moment even more.

“I take the votes to a private area and go through them, and put them in order,” Probst said. “And the reason they have to be in order is not just for dramatic impact, but it’s also because we’re always going to read votes for everybody player that got a vote.”

But, it’s not like Probst always reads all the votes. Once a castaway’s dreams are dashed by a majority count, Probst announces they’ve been booted from the island without reading the rest of the votes. That’s because he — and everyone else — knows the last votes are for the ousted player.

“The only votes I don’t read are when the only votes left are for the player who already has the most votes,” he continued. “So, they already have the majority, so the rest are all their’s and it’s not going to change anything. So, you have to order them to make sure you accomplish this.”

Let’s take a look at this in practice. Spoilers for Survivor 47’s aired episodes are incoming!

Jeremy “Rome” Cooney, one of the most notorious players this season, was taken out on day 12 ahead of the merge. He caught nine votes, the most of anyone thus far. However, even though it was a clear majority for Rome, Probst tallied the votes and ensured he read the parchments that had other names on them, specifically Sam Phalen and Andy Rueda. This is an important example because the latter received two votes courtesy of Solomon “Sol” Yi and Sue Smey. This was a clear indicator to Andy that he was the back-up target, and if Rome used a hidden immunity idol, he would’ve been out instead (Sam received one vote from Rome).

As we saw in the next episode, Andy was reeling from the two votes he received, and it looks like that’ll impact the game in some way. The circumstance may not have happened if Probst didn’t tally the votes ahead of time and ensured all the relevant votes were read.

As Probst mentioned, it’s not just for dramatics, even though the vote system does lead to that. It’s a part of the game that has true and potentially game-altering consequences.