Yesterday we looked at contestants who have gotten very little in terms of confessionals on the way to a purple edit. Today, we are going to dive a little deeper into confessionals as a whole as they pertain to Survivor. Used since the dawn of time, every Survivor fan understands the words and how they are used in the show.

When studying journalism, one of the first rules you learn is “show, don’t tell”. Anytime you have a chance of explaining your thoughts without going through too many steps, you do it. In Survivor, there are many ways that can be done but one of them is using confessionals as a way to let the audience know what is going on. It’s the most personal form of narrating the show could use. Instead of having Jeff Probst tell us what is going on, the contestants who are actually in the midst of the action do so.

Plus it’s an excuse to show Garrett in the Titanic pose.

On top of that, confessionals are the only real way to know a player’s truth in the game. You can show as many scenes of a person talking to an ally, the audience will never know if what that contestant is saying is the truth. The only time we can be certain a character is being honest with us is with the confessional. Confessionals are windows into the minds of the Survivor players.

Think back to the greatest lie ever told on Survivor, the dead grandma lie. Though we find out that Jonny Fairplay’s grandmother is in fact, not dead, with a scene of Fairplay and Thunder D walking along the beach, Jon really confirms it to us in a confessional. A confessional that should be as infamous as the lie itself.

The confessional brings this legendary moment to its rightful end. It wouldn’t pack the same punch if it had just ended with Fairplay and Thunder D on the beach. Jon’s final punchline is really what seals the deal and helps make this moment one of the most unforgettable episodes of Survivor.

With that in mind, I thought it would be a fun experiment to sift through the 34 seasons in the show’s history to try and see how confessionals have been used through the years. There were some definite changes that jumped out to me right off the bat.

Survivor: Borneo has often been called a completely different show than the other 33 seasons. The pace is slower and the strategy talk much less rampant. Many people have taken to calling it a documentary more than anything else. The amount of confessionals in the season certainly helps back that argument up. There were 636 confessionals in Borneo for a whopping 48.92 per episode. That is an average of 10 more confessionals per episode than any other season.

17 years later, Richard Hatch remains in the top five in total confessionals in one season with his 91 in Borneo. The top five is rounded out by Russel Hantz, Colby Donaldson, Rob Cesternino, and Tony Vlachos but we will get more into that tomorrow.

Rich’s average of seven confessionals per episode is beaten by only two people, and barely at that. Productions understood the impact the first Survivor winner could have on the show and made sure to give Rich some room to tell his own story. Thankfully for them, Richard had the charisma and intelligence to carry the momentous first season. His ability to be interesting on camera was probably just as important to the show’s long-term survival as his strategic guile is claimed to be.

From Borneo, the producers adjusted their way of filming a little bit. The Australian Outback is the only other season to top 500 confessionals and that season had an extra episode included when compared to Borneo. Colby Donaldson also becomes one of the players to top Rich’s total confessionals with his 96 on the season. Richard had some flair in front of a camera but Colby’s quips and one-liners, along with his golden boy looks, helped transform him into America’s sweetheart. Everybody back then was Team Colby and his confessionals had a lot to do with that.

Let’s look at the 34 season with some charts showing the total confessionals per season as well as the average number of confessionals per season.