Jonathan LaPaglia stunned by tribal council tie: ‘This is a first’

Jonathan LaPaglia appeared stunned during Survivor’s tribal council as several players came close to drawing rocks to decide their fate.

There were unprecedented scenes during Monday’s Australian Survivor tribal council as a tie in the voting left the remaining players almost resorting to drawing rocks to decide who went home.

Earlier, David had won the reward challenge, scoring a luxurious night away complete with a spa and bed. He was permitted to bring a handful of tribemates with him, choosing Sharn, Moana and Tarzan. It left the other four players back at camp — and free to plot.

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At tribal council, Jacqui found herself torn between the two alliances of the remaining players, with both insisting they were on her side. The tension at tribal drove David to finally play one of his immunity idols, using it for Tarzan.

Some players seemed pretty stressed at tribal.

Turns out, he didn’t need it — the (first) vote was a tie, with four votes on Jacqui and four on Moana. That came minutes after Moana had insisted Jacqui was a key member of her alliance. “I’ve stuck by Jacqui since day one, even when these guys wanted to vote her out,” she’d vowed before votes were cast.

A revote — in which Jacqui and Moana were barred from voting, and everyone else had to put down only either of their names — returned the same result. Three votes Moana, three votes Jacqui.

“We’re deadlocked. This is a first for Australian Survivor,” said host Jonathan LaPaglia.

“So this is how it’s gonna work. As per the rules of Survivor, the six of you who didn’t receive votes will now need to come to a unanimous decision about who you want to send home between Jacqui and Moana. If you cannot reach a unanimous decision, then it flips. Jacqui and Moana become safe.”

Harry had a bird's eye view from the jury.

Host Jonathan LaPaglia at tribal.

David’s hard-won immunity necklace — and the immunity idol he played for Tarzan — meant they’d also be safe. It would be down to the four remaining players — Shonee, Brooke, Sharn and AK — to draw rocks. “Whoever pulls the odd rock will go home,” LaPaglia explained.

In a bizarre turn of events, three of the four then seemed quite happy to draw rocks and face a 25% chance of going home, hesitating as Sharn begged them to cut a last-minute deal.

Finally, after a lot of begging from Sharn, the trio relented and joined the others to unanimously vote out Jacqui.

“If I’m going to go out with a bang, that was a bang,” she said after her elimination. “Sharn can promise all she likes to those three, but she’ll come unstuck … She’ll be next out.”

Jacqui after she was voted out.

Survivor: All-Stars continues 7:30pm Tuesday and Wednesday on Ten.