And again, why would they make Spencer the narrator? He isn't particularly exciting, and he isn't really involved in any of the action. It would have been really, really easy for the editors to have given him an INV1 this episode and nobody would have really noticed...Menelaus, I think you just nicely identified the typical narrator. They really aren't huge characters, and not involved in any of the big action (think Austin). It's because these sorts of people would be really easy for the editors to ignore is why you sort of pay attention to their confessionals. Their content is not plain vanilla ("John and Mary got the treemail..."), which does little more than verbally verify what we saw with our own eyes: oh - there's John and Mary coming back with treemail...
Instead, their confessionals are often high-level: the mood of the tribe, the tribes reaction to TC or IC, the status of another person vis a vis the tribe. They're a greek chorus of sorts, getting us up to date on the tribe itself. What's important is that they don't internalize this stuff - "I'm really pissed at what happened at TC, I'm worried that Mary might go next because it will screw up my plans...
They are often personable and articulate and pleasant.
I know that "narrator" is not part of any official edgic ruling, but we do use the term a lot, and the above is my perception of a narrator. Oh - they also don't win. Think of a nice guy MORP3 type who is always there, always commenting, but you see little if any depth or complexity.
