Tribal Council

Tribal Council is an elimination ceremony that usually happens every third night in the game of Survivor, where the contestants are being held accountable for their actions in the game, usually with one person being voted out of the tribe.

Format
Tribal Council usually starts at sundown. When a tribe visits Tribal Council for the first time, its members are given torches and are to dip them in the central fire pit. The host then reminds the castaways that the fire on their torch symbolizes their life in the game, and once it is extinguished by him, their time in the game is over. This metaphor is used commonly within the show's theme. The castaways will have a conversation with the host for hours, usually edited in the actual episode to only feature the highlights, regarding camp life, strategy, social interactions, and events he witnessed at the challenges throughout the cycle. The session oftentimes leads to tension-filled discourses among tribe members, and contestants in precarious situations may reveal important information or plead their case to keep themselves in the game. If a castaway fails to give a satisfying answer to the host, the host reserves the right to test that contestant further by peppering him or her with more incriminating questions.

Once the host finishes interrogating the contestants, they, one by one, will proceed to a distant voting booth where they will write the name of the castaway they want to vote out and must state the reason why he/she wanted to vote for that player. After voting, the players would insert their ballot inside an urn, which the host later collects. The host tallies the votes and reveals the results to the players.

Once the vote tally has exceeded the plurality needed, the host stops tallying, pronouncing that player eliminated from the game, keeping the remaining votes a secret, though typically, the unread votes are implied to be for the eliminated contestant. The eliminated player presents the host his or her torch and the host extinguishes (known in the series as "snuffing") it and tells that contestant the parting words, "The tribe has spoken," before asking the player to leave the Tribal Council area.