The “jury” in survivor is the last 8 or 9 people that are voted off before the finale. After they are voted off, they return to watch every tribal council, to listen to what has been happening in camp. At the end, they each get to question the 2 or 3 finalists, and ask them questions like “why should you get the money” and “what would you do differently”. They are the ones that vote for who should get the million dollar prize. Yes, there was a jury on the first survivor. That season, one of the contestants gave the famous “snake and rat” speech during the finale instead of asking a question.