‘Survivor 48’ host Jeff Probst explains why they moved the voting booth

Sai Hughley did something very sneaky on Survivor 48, it was revealed on this week’s episode. Still upset that tribemate Cedrek McFadden almost voted her out earlier in the season, Sai voted for him at Tribal Council on day 13 of the game. But Cedrek could not figure out it was her because the handwriting did not match up to previous votes of hers.

Little did he know that sneaky Sai “purposely wrote it in cursive so no one would know it was my handwriting.” Jeff Probst commented on this penmanship misdirection on the latest episode of his On Fire with Jeff Probst podcast. “It reminds me that every player has their own unique approach,” Probst says on the podcast, “and they see things that other players don’t see as an opportunity.”

Sai’s voting booth shenanigans also serve as exhibit A as to why the voting booth location has shifted over the years, which Probst reveals on the podcast. “I’ll give you a direct relation to how my view of the vote has changed Tribal Council and the layout of it,” he says. “In the early seasons, the voting area was straight down the pipe from where the players were. So they could watch a player go up and vote.”

That made for the classic early-era Survivor shot of a player voting for someone that was in direct view right behind them. To make sure contestants knew what level voice to use while voting, Probst would always demonstrate to everyone at the start of the season just how loudly they could whisper without being heard, often using the same shtick about meeting after the season in New York City to grab a slice at Ray’s. (Sadly, he did not signify whether he meant Ray’s, Original Ray’s, Famous Ray’s, or Original Famous Ray’s, meaning scores of past players may have been stumbling across the five boroughs for years looking for the right pizza joint.)

But even with those safety precautions put in place, the open eye-line voting situation still created potential privacy issues that bothered the host.

“I would always sit there and think: ‘Man, I’d be watching their shoulder moves,’” says Probst. “I’d be looking to see: ‘Is that a C or is that a G?’ Because I’d be looking for that information. So much so that after several years it was my thought that we should make that private, so that a player can go up there and take a moment if they want to and not worry about players watching them.”

And that’s exactly what they did. “So we moved the voting booth so that you could no longer see the player when they were voting.”

Or, in this case, one pen stroke. For more from Probst on the episode, check out the latest installment of On Fire.