Survivor 34

Jeff Varner outed Zeke Smith, and the vote was never held

In the Survivor: Game Changers episode aired 5 April 2017, Jeff Varner outed Zeke Smith as transgender at Tribal Council without his consent. The tribe defended Smith, and Jeff Probst ended the council without a written vote: "We don't need to vote. Just grab your torch." Varner apologized the same day.

Confirmed Everything here is on the broadcast record or in first-person accounts published by the people involved. No court or network proceeding ever followed.

Jeff Varner Jeff Varner Zeke Smith Zeke Smith Sarah Lacina Sarah Lacina Andrea Boehlke Andrea Boehlke

What the record shows

  • Confirmed At Tribal Council in the episode aired 5 April 2017, Jeff Varner outed Zeke Smith as transgender without his consent, asking "Why haven't you told anyone here you're transgender?"
  • Confirmed Varner tied the question to strategy, saying it showed "his ability to deceive." The rest of the tribe rejected that and defended Smith.
  • Confirmed Jeff Probst ended the Tribal Council without a written vote, telling Varner "We don't need to vote. Just grab your torch" before snuffing it.
  • Admitted Varner apologized publicly, calling what he did an "assault" and "the worst decision" of his life.
  • Confirmed Varner lost his real-estate job the day after the episode aired.
  • Confirmed Smith published his own account in The Hollywood Reporter on 12 April 2017 and a second column on 4 May 2018.

What happened at that Tribal Council

The episode went out on 5 April 2017. Facing a vote he expected to lose, Jeff Varner outed Zeke Smith as transgender in front of the tribe, asking him, "Why haven't you told anyone here you're transgender?" He attached it to the game, saying it showed "his ability to deceive." Smith had not told anyone on the cast and had not agreed to being outed.

The argument Varner made did not land with a single person there. Sarah Lacina, Andrea Boehlke, Tai Trang, Ozzy Lusth and Debbie Wanner were all sitting on those logs, and the tribe turned on Varner rather than on Smith. That reaction is the part of the sequence most accounts skip, and it is the part Smith himself has pushed hardest to keep in.

The elimination with no written vote

Jeff Probst never ran the vote. He told Varner, "We don't need to vote. Just grab your torch," and snuffed it on the spot. Nobody wrote a name on a parchment. Nobody walked to the urn.

Every other Tribal Council the show has broadcast actually held the vote it convened. This is the one where the vote was called off and the player went home anyway, which is why it turns up in trivia about the series as often as it turns up in coverage of the incident itself.

How Zeke Smith has framed it

Smith has not issued a style rule for writers, but his two columns in The Hollywood Reporter leave very little room. The first, published on 12 April 2017, opens "I'm not wild about you knowing that I'm trans." He puts the action on Varner throughout. He was outed; he did not come out, and nothing about him was uncovered.

He also answered the question people kept asking, which was why he had not said anything. He wanted to be cast as a player and a storyteller rather than as "The First Trans Survivor Player." That is a casting preference, not a secret, and it is the opposite of the deception Varner invoked.

In a second column on 4 May 2018 he wrote about what he wanted the episode to do afterward: change what someone finds when they search for a trans outing. His stated preference is that this be remembered as a story in which a trans person was defended by the people around him, not as a tragedy.

What happened to Varner

Varner apologized publicly and did not soften it. He called what he did an "assault" and "the worst decision" of his life. The Hollywood Reporter carried the apology the same day the episode aired.

The following day he lost his job in real estate. That is the whole of the consequence anyone can document. No criminal case was brought, no civil case was filed, and no court has ever ruled on any part of this. Anything written about his intent that night is opinion, including his own later account of it.

People in this story

Questions people ask

What did Jeff Varner do to Zeke Smith?
At Tribal Council in the episode aired 5 April 2017, Varner outed Smith as transgender without his consent and framed it as evidence of deception. The rest of the tribe rejected the argument and defended Smith.
Was Jeff Varner voted out?
No. Jeff Probst ended the Tribal Council without a written vote, telling Varner "We don't need to vote. Just grab your torch." No ballots were cast and Varner's torch was snuffed there.
What season and episode was it?
Survivor: Game Changers, the show's 34th season. The Tribal Council aired on 5 April 2017.
What has Zeke Smith said about it?
He wrote two guest columns for The Hollywood Reporter, on 12 April 2017 and 4 May 2018. He explains he wanted to be cast as a player rather than as "The First Trans Survivor Player."
Did Jeff Varner apologize, and was he ever charged?
He apologized publicly, calling it an "assault" and "the worst decision" of his life, and lost his real-estate job the next day. No criminal or civil case was ever brought.

Sources

Checked on 2026-07-26. If something here is wrong or out of date, we want to know: get in touch.