Survivor's Jeff Probst Reveals Massive Change to Key Challenge Rule

The famous "Sit-Out Bench" has a brand new rule in Survivor 45.

By Charlie Ridgely

The new era of Survivor has brought plenty of twists and rule changes to the beloved reality competition series, and Wednesday's new episode delivered yet another tweak to the guidelines. In just the second week of Survivor 45, host and producer Jeff Probst altered a rule about the infamous Sit-Out Bench, one that he hopes will bring some more strategy to the game itself.

The classic rule about sitting players out (if a team had more than their opponents) was that the same player couldn't sit out twice in the same episode. That meant teams had to choose between benching certain players in reward or immunity challenges. In the new era of Survivor, where there is typically only one challenge between Tribal Councils, teams have been able to sit the same player out at each challenge. That won't be the cast any longer.

Probst explained the new rule ahead of the immunity challenge in the latest episode of Survivor. Explained a more detailed reason for the change during an interview with EW.

"In the early seasons of Survivor, there were always two challenges: a reward challenge and an immunity challenge," Probst explained. "The sit-out rule was designed to force a critical decision, because if you sat out of the reward challenge, you were forced to compete in the immunity challenge. So it came down to strategy. If you really wanted to win reward, you might sit out your weakest player, but if you did, that weak player would then have to run in the immunity challenge. And Tribal Council was always the resent, which meant it was a clean slate with the next challenge."

"In this new era, we often only have one combined reward/immunity challenge," he continued. "So tribes could sit someone out of the challenge, then Tribal served as a reset, and the next challenge they could sit the same person out again."

Probst and the production team ultimately decided the previous sit-out system took too much strategy away from the new era of Survivor, so the decision was made to set some new rules.

Related:

"There was no dilemma," Probst said. "It took us longer than we should to realize our old system was broken! In fact, I think it was a fan question on our podcast, On Fire, that made us aware. Either way, we've changed it and we're back on track."

What do you think of the new Sit-Out Bench rule on Survivor? Let us know in the comments!

Trending Now: