Tiebreaker

A Tiebreaker is a situation where two (or more) individuals share the same amount of votes at Tribal Council with no other person recieving a higher amount. In this event, several instances occur.

About
A tiebreaker situation occurs when two or more contestants have an equal number of votes amongst each other. There are different ways to break a tie, usually starting with a revote. Other than there, the game had shown many ways to break a deadlocked tie.

Rules
The first tied vote to ever occur was in Survivor: Borneo in the episode The Final Four, where a revote would be the tiebreaker. According to Jeff Probst in that episode, Tribal Council will continue until a tie has been broken, probably implying that the revote would continue until only a single contestant would have the most votes. The true deadlocked tiebreaker remains unknown, however, although one thing is certain: If a tie happens, the players in question would not vote, while the remaining players vote again and are immune from the revote. If the second vote still ends up tied, it would be deadlocked, which is the tricky and controversial aspect of the game.

Revote
After a Tribal Council voting, if there was a tie between two or more contestants, Probst would inform that a revote would happen, requesting a tribe member to give the urn to Probst to return it back to the voting area for the revote. At the revote, the following rules would be implemented:


 * 1) Only implemented during Survivor: The Australian Outback and  Survivor: Africa, the contestants involved in the tied vote would make a last-minute plea before the revote on why the deserve to stay.
 * 2) At the revote, all contestants involved in the tie can't vote, while they are the only ones that can be voted against.
 * 3) Contestants may vote for a different contestant involved in the tie.
 * 4) The contestants would not be allowed to play the Hidden Immunity Idol before the revote votes are read.
 * 5) If there is still a tie after the revote, a tiebreaker event would occur, which varies based on the number of contestants left in the game.

Earlier Seasons
During Australia and  Africa, if the revote was deadlocked, votes from previous Tribal Councils will be counted. Whoever had more votes would go home. If the number of past votes of the tied players were still the same, they would be subjected into a tiebreaker challenge (example is the trivia quiz challenge in Africa). The loser would go home.

The Purple Rock
An infamous tiebreaker called the Purple Rock, is done when after the revote there is still a tied vote. The mechanics of the Purple Rock tiebreaker is that all contestants that are not immune (i.e. doesn't have Individual Immunity or didn't play the Hidden Immunity Idol) from the vote - including those who were not tied in the first vote and the revote - would have to each pick a rock from a bag. Whoever got the dreaded Purple Rock would be eliminated. The infamous and controversial Purple Rock tiebreaker was first used in Survivor: Marquesas during the Day 36 Tribal Council, where Neleh Dennis and Kathy Vavrick-O'Brien were tied 2-2 while Vecepia Towery had the Immunity Necklace. In a surprise turn of events, Paschal English, the only contestant without immunity who did not receive a vote that night (and also the during whole game), was eliminated by drawing the Purple Rock.

Current Rules
As of the current season, the following rules will apply in breaking tied votes:
 * 1) If a tie occurs, a revote would happen (with the rules above applied).
 * 2) If there is a tie again in the revote and there are five or more contestants left in the game, the Purple Rock tiebreaker would happen.
 * 3) If there is a tie again in the revote but during the Final Four, the tied contestants will be subjected in a fire-starting challenge. The winner stays, the loser is out.

The reason why the Purple Rock tiebreaker is still in use is to prevent contestants from forcing a tie vote, putting members of evenly-numbered alliances in a precarious position (either to get a member from the rival alliance to tip the scales, to personally go to the rival alliance if flipping would be considered better for own's game, or to force a tie and hoping that the rival alliance would be eliminated by the Purple Rock).

Jury Tied Votes
In an interview with Mark Burnett in Survivor Oz, it was revealed that a revote would commence if the Jury votes for the winner are tied.

Trivia

 * The only episode that has a trivia quiz challenge tiebreaker was during The Gods Are Angry episode in Survivor: Africa.
 * The only episode that has the Purple Rock tiebreaker was during The Sole Survivor in Survivor: Marquesas.
 * The fire-making challenge was shown in the following episodes
 * The Ultimate Shock in Survivor: Palau.
 * Call the Whambulence! in Survivor: Panama.
 * This Tribe Will Self-Destruct in 5, 4, 3... in Survivor: Cook Islands.
 * Say Goodbye to Gabon in Survivor: Gabon.
 * Lindsey Richter is the only person to face a tiebreaker twice in single season, in Africa. First time on Day 9 winning in the trivia tiebreaker, while the second time eliminated by having more past votes.