Surge-supressor resistor in power supply

[frenchy]

The CTC-10W I'm working on has this big flat, black 'surge suppressor' resistor in series with the line voltage. But a big 1/3 hunk of has blown off of it. Schems say it should be 79 ohms cold, I'm reading 131 ohms (thanks to the missing chunk). Set works (no color but I'm working on it) but wondering how much could this 131 vs 79 ohms be affecting the set operation, and how... or is it negligible? Can I just install a jumper instead of this thing, or just leave it there as is? What is it supposed to be protecting, the entire set against a lightning strike or line voltage surge damage or what?
thanks!...Frenchy