Longevity in Reality Television: How Survivor Outwits, Outlasts and Outplays
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LONGEVITY IN REALITY TELEVISION:
HOW SURVIVOR OUTWITS, OUTLASTS AND OUTPLAYS
By
NATASHA ALEXANDRA HARRISON
______
A Thesis Submitted to The Honors College
In Partial Fulfillment of the Bachelors of Arts degree With Honors in
Media Arts – Producing
THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
DECEMBER 2013
Approved by:
______
Dr. Bradley Schauer School of Theatre, Film and Television
Abstract
The reality television show, Survivor, has been broadcasted on CBS since May
2000. This paper outlines the various ways Survivor has been able to outwit, outlast, and outplay for twenty-seven seasons. This award-winning American reality competition show tests the physical, mental, emotional, and social limits of anyone who is willing to be “stranded” on a deserted island in order to have the chance to win $1,000,000. As contestants try to adapt to their new island lifestyle, producers try to adapt new ways to keep the audience engaged from season to season.
This paper gives readers a detailed history of how the show came to be as well as prediction as to where the show will and will not go in the future. It also analyzes the successes and hardships the show has seen over its twenty-seven years on air. While the game challenges, contestants, and ratings are constantly changing from season to season, the premise of this social experimental reality television show has always remained the same: to “outwit, outlast, and outplay” the competition. Survivor: Outwit, Outplay, Outlast Harrison
I. Introduction
At one point or another, most of us have wondered what it would be like to be stranded on a deserted island with complete strangers, or even completely alone. Some might view it as a vacation, while others might view it as a death sentence; either way it is the adventure of a lifetime. Authors have written exotic stories about being stranded on deserted islands since 1105 when ibn Tufail wrote Philosophus Autdodidactus, one of the first philosophical novels to explore this escapade (WDL). However, a limited amount of individuals have actually lived this adventure and 406 of them have been contestants on Survivor, with 59 of them competing in multiple seasons. Only 27 of them truly “survived,” by winning the competition.
Survivor is an award-winning American reality competition show that tests the physical, mental, emotional, and social limits of anyone who is willing to be “stranded” on a deserted island in order to have the chance to win $1,000,000. The show follows a group of strangers who have been placed in an isolated location. These castaways are expected to fend for themselves after only being given rice and clean drinking water for survival. The contestants are stripped of life as they know it -- no technology, no loved ones, and no comfort. In addition to the difficulties of surviving in a desolate location, contestants are expected to compete in a series of mental and physical challenges in order to stay in the game longer. However, it is not just the challenges that decide the game; contestants are expected to vote members from their tribe off of the island and therefore out of the running for the million-dollar prize. Often, castaways are removed from the island and taken out of the competition for reasons other than the majority vote, such as for psychological or medial needs, or by personal choice (quitters). On day 39 of the competition, the last two or three remaining contestants are then judged and voted for by
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their previously eliminated tribe members, known as “The Jury,” in order to win a million dollars and the title of “Sole Survivor.”
Survivor has been on the air since 2000 and is currently airing its twenty-seventh season.
Countless elements coalesced perfectly together to create one of the longest lasting television series in history. One reason Survivor has achieved this success is because it is more than a reality show; it is a social experiment. Armchair psychologists rejoiced when the show aired because they were able to view one of the greatest experiments of all time from the comfort of their own couch. The longevity of this reality competition show in comparison to others is due to the ability of the show, the players, and the producers to adapt. The objective of the hit reality game show, Survivor, is to outwit, outlast, and outplay your competition, which is exactly what the show has done for 27 seasons.
By adding new contestants, bringing back returning players, including new game twists, and relocating the show is able to reinvent itself each season while remaining with the main premise of Survivor: to outwit, outplay and outlast the competition. Additionally, the show stays relevant by utilizing and establishing connections through social media like Facebook and
Twitter. Ultimately, a deep analysis of Survivor reveals that the show’s longevity is due to the adaptability of the contestants, the producers, and the game itself.
II. History
Survivor premiered on CBS on May 31, 2000 and was originally used to fill summer airtime for the major network (Kissell). According to Burnett, summer shows are meant to be filler, “they are the kind of thing a network airs as an afterthought” (Survivor II 24). Slating
Survivor as a summer show decreased the risk for CBS. Due to the fact that every advertisement
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for the show had to be sold prior to filming, CBS would be none the poorer if the show tanked
(Survivor II 24). However, when the show made its debut, it cultivated huge international success, which then opened the door to the creation of the Survivor franchise. However, the show was not an overnight success. It took perseverance, inspiration, nerve, and an unbelievably adventurous dream to make Survivor a reality. The executive producer of the show, Mark
Burnett, first began selling t-shirts on the beach in Southern California and has truly taken the
American dream to a whole new and global level.
Ex-British soldier, Mark Burnett, was fresh off of a stint in the British Paratroopers and only had $600 to his name when he immigrated to the United States. With no family wealth or formal education, he wanted to pursue the American dream. His first job was being a nanny for a producer in Los Angeles (out of pure luck). After that position, he sold t-shirts on the beach in
Venice and then went on to create his own credit card marketing business. While reading the
Times one morning, Burnett found his new goal: bring an expedition race to the U.S called the
“Eco-Challenge” (Dare to Succeed 3).
As detailed in his autobiography Dare to Succeed, since Burnett is a “method producer,” he wanted to be able to have experienced an expedition race first hand so that when potential contestants and investors of his race asked about the competition, he would be able to recount his own experiences. He participated in three expedition races before he landed his own in 1992.
Burnett purchased the rights from Gerald Fusil’s expedition race concept and brought it to
American households.
Burnett’s first reality competition show, Eco-Challenge, aired on the USA Network from
April 1, 1995 until April 22, 2002. The show was arguably the world’s toughest and first ever expedition race across the world’s most unforgiving landscapes. More than fifty-four-person
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teams of risk-seekers gathered annually to race for eight to ten nonstop days of competition across the globe. Less than half of the teams ever finished and the elite Navy SEALs fielded teams for five years before one managed to finally finish the race. Burnett said the biggest lesson he learned from the fierce competition show (both through producing and participating) was that the success of an individual depends far more on team dynamics and interpersonal skills than any other attribute. This realization then led Burnett in the hunt for a game that would test social skills to the maximum level in addition to physical challenges. Burnett wanted to give men and women the opportunity to discover who they really were (Dare to Succeed 9).
Burnett found what he was looking for when he laid eyes on the Swedish television series, Expedition Robinson, originally created in 1997 by Charlie Parsons. After purchasing the
North American rights show from Charlie Parsons in 1998, Burnett pitched the show concept to
CBS in the fall of that same year. However, he wanted his to be substantially different from
Parsons’ “My Survivor would be bigger, more dramatic, and more epic than any non-fiction television ever seen” (Dare to Succeed 6). He envisioned the show as “Gilligan’s Island meets
Lord of the Flies meets Ten Little Indians meets The Real World” (Survivor 10). All are about people stranded, typically with strangers, in a remote location where they are meant to survive the harsh and unfamiliar territory, whether it is an island or a house filled with seven strangers.
All of those works referenced all reflect on the human condition and ability to outlive and outlast. Burnett pitched the show and was turned down by the Discovery Channel with whom he had produced Eco-Challenge for three years. He was also turned down by USA Network is “less than thirty-seconds” but the network wanted to purchase Eco-Challenge. He was also turned down by Fox, where he was warned that if he messed up his first show in the United States, it would be his last. Burnett was again turned down by ABC and NBC. It was Burnett’s turn to say
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no, when UPN wanted the show but their budget was not at the level Burnett had wanted it to be.
The then head of CBS Television, Leslie Moonves, gave the show the green light for thirteen prime-time hours of “Survivor” during the summer of 2000 on the condition that Burnett could gain a line-up of advertisers before the show even began to film. Moonves did this in order to see if the advertising community would embrace this new program, and they did. Survivor was already a financial success before the show began filming because every sponsorship sold.
Burnett was then quoted in a press release for his new show as, “Two parts adventure contest and eight parts surviving the peer group” (Survivor 10). Burnett wanted the social element of Survivor to be on the forefront of the viewers’ minds. A couple of days before the premiere of the show Burnett had been working on for five years, he said, “I swatted the negative ruminations aside. I’d come so far, I reminded myself. I’d taken enormous changes, embraced risk, and refused to blink when failure stared me down” (Dare to Succeed 2001). However, not only was Burnett completely dedicated to the project, so was CBS. “CBS shared my intuition.
They had worked hard promoting the show, coming up with dozens of ingenious publicity stunts.
I never knew when another would pop up out of the blue to remind me that this pet project I had been working on for so long was being thrown into the oft-fickle den of the American public opinion (Dare to Succeed 2001). Yet, the majority of the American public opinion was in favor of this new adventure show called Survivor.
Over 6,000 people applied to be a contestant on the first ever season of Survivor,
Survivor: Borneo (Survivor 10). The show premiered on May 31st 2000 in front of 15.51 million viewers at the beginning of that fateful summer (Kissell). A New York Times article published that June said that the show scored new ratings heights, pulling in more viewers than CBS had had on any Wednesday night since the Nielsen Media Research company transformed its rating
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system in 1987 (Carter). After just the first two weeks of Survivor it was believed that the show would turn around CBS’s ratings fortunes completely and possibly make the network a contender for the overall television leadership. In fact, the end of that summer was even better than the beginning, because the ratings were higher than ever before. According to Variety writer
Kissell, the finale of Survivor: Borneo was watched by an average of 51.9 million viewers. This was more than any program that season (including the Academy Awards) with the exception of the Super Bowl. This is impressive considering that the Super Bowl is shown on Sunday nights in January (the most watched night during the most watched month of the year). Kissell goes on to say, “In the final 30 minutes, which saw wily Richard Hatch emerge as the surprise million- dollar winner, 58.58 million viewers were glued to the tribal council vote, representing nearly half of all televisions in use at the time (“An Eye-Land Paradise: CBS sets summer record with
‘Survivor’). When the deal was originally struck between CBS CEO Moonves, it was said that the show would get another season if it were able to meet the ratings CBS would normally get from summer reruns (Dare to Succeed 10). Survivor clearly did more than meet those ratings; it completely surpassed them.
Not only were these numbers a huge success for Mark Burnett and Charlie Parsons, but they were also a massive success for CBS. The show’s 38.6 rating and 45 share in homes made it the highest-rated CBS telecast since the women’s figure skating finals (Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya
Harding) at the 1994 Olympics (Kissell). These numbers reflected the success of the show’s concept because the show only had 13 weeks to capture the interest of all of those viewers.
Anticipating a large audience, CBS was able to sell 30-second advertisement spots at $600,000 each during the two-hour season finale. This was more than advertisements sold that aired during
NBC’s top-rated program, E.R. (Rutenberg).
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Following its success in America, the Survivor franchise expanded into a global phenomenon. At one point in time, forty-six countries other than the United States embarked on producing their own Survivor. Survivor is still on the air in six countries, including the United
States. Other countries around the world have produced their own version of the series and are either titled Survivor or Expedition Robinson. The rights to the show are purchased through
Parson’s Castaway Television Productions. Also following the success of the Survivor franchise, producer Mark Burnett continued to produce other reality based competition shows like The
Apprentice, Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? Combat Missions, The Voice Shank Tank and others.
The Survivor series is considered to be one of the early pioneers of popular reality television along with MTV’s Real World. After showing the first peek ever at Survivor to advertisers, Mark Burnett stated, “I knew we’d accomplished the results we’d been aiming for when one of them shook my hand. ‘I was expecting Real World, but this is a feature film’” (Dare to Succeed 162). Survivor has inspired many other reality television shows with a similar premise of being on a desolate island but none have come close to achieve the same success.
These shows include Temptation Island, Big Brother, Naked and Afraid, The Amazing Race and many more.
According to Dehnart’s article, “Why the Sudden Flow of Survivor and Amazing Race
Style Shows This Summer?” summer 2013 stands out for giving audiences a surprising number of wilderness and survival focused shows that take visual, structural and casting cues from
Survivor. One of these shows includes the Discovery Channel’s new series, Naked and Afraid.
This show took survival literally and to the extreme. The premise of the show is dropping off a naked man and a naked woman in a remote location and see if they can survive for twenty-one
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days. Another show, is TNT’s 72 Hours, another American reality competition series has three teams of competing strangers dropped in remote locations and given few essentials to survive.
The teams must travel through harsh environments for 72 hours to find a hidden briefcase that contains $100,000. Another Survivor-like show premiering on TNT this summer was The Hero.
This reality show is hosted by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and has nine housemates are pitted against one another in missions that test their minds, physical strength and morality to win a million series. However, one of the most blatant replicas of Survivor is NBC’s Siberia that premiered during summer 2013. While it is a fictional series, it began presented like a reality competition with a helicopter shot of a remote wilderness location and 16 strangers waiting to be dropped off to start a new civilization just like the show it borrowed from (Dehnart, 2013).
In order for Survivor to “outwit, outlast, and outplay” these uprising competitors and long-lasting competitors like Amazing Race, Real World, and Big Brother it needs to keep establishing a unique selling proposition for audiences to tune in each season. The producers have been able to do this by adding new elements to the show, further engaging and deepening fan interaction on social media and by reinventing itself. While some twists and turns increase the average number of viewers, there has been a gradual decrease in ratings since the show first began in 2000.
Depicted on the next page is a visual representation of the average number of viewers per each of the twenty-six seasons of Survivor (Figure 1). The average number of viewers for the most recent season, Season 27 Survivor: Blood vs. Water, was not available during the time this paper was written because it was on air. However, the Blood vs. Water premiere received 9.52 million viewers and topped all Wednesday broadcasts in adults 18-49 and adults 25-54, which has led CBS to a nightly win in key demographics according to Bibel from TV by the Numbers.
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Figure 1.
Survivor Viewers per Season 30 25 20 15 10 5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 in Millions Viewers Survivor Seasons
This graph depicts a rather downward slope in the average number of viewers per season of Survivor since the most watched season in 2000, which was the second season: Survivor:
Australian Outback. As the average number of viewers continues to drop each season, we can only assume that the trend predicts an even lower average for the most recent season, Survivor:
Blood vs. Water. However, looking at the weekly number of million viewers for Survivor: Blood vs. Water, the show has not dipped below 9 million and is on the ninth episode of the season
(Bibel). The same night Survivor: Blood vs. Water received its lowest average amount of viewers, the show was directly competing with the final game of the 2013 World Series on
October 30th. With the ever-changing game, the producers are trying to find the right twist, turns, emotions and likeable contestants that will increase viewership. They might have been on to something with Survivor: Blood vs. Water.
III. Game Play
The game begins long before the castaways are split into different tribes on the beach.
Once the castaways embark on their journey from the U.S. to the location where the competition
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is taking place, they are not allowed to speak to one another (Survivor 11). Producers do this so that they don’t miss anything on camera and so that all alliances between castaways are formed on the island. This rule keeps Survivor a social experiment rather than a pre-meditated drama. In seasons with returning players, this rule can be enforced on location, but interactions and conversations between former players is likely to have happened at some point in time prior to travelling out to location. At the very least, one may have seen how an individual played the game beforehand, and may therefore have more knowledge about that individual than a competing first-time player would.
While the game rules of Survivor are not explicitly stated during the show, they are heavily enforced upon the castaways. If a contestant fails to follow the rules outlined in their contract, they could face expulsion from the game and the forfeiture of any earned prize money
(“Survivor Contestant Contract”). Also according to Dehnart and a 2010 copy of the contestant’s agreement for the show, a contestant must pay $5 million each time they violate the confidentiality agreement. Misconduct is also against the rules in terms of violence towards other contestants and towards the production crew. One contestant, Ben Browning, was the first player to be thrown out of a challenge. He was pulled from the challenge for “too many cheap shots” according to host Probst and unnecessary physicality during the second episode of Survivor:
Samoa (“Taking Candy From a Baby”).
Misconduct also includes stealing and misappropriating food. Nicknamed “Hurricane
Hantz,” one of the game’s biggest villains, Brandon Hantz, had one of the biggest meltdowns the show had ever seen during Survivor: Caramoan (2013). Towards the beginnings of the season,
Brandon threatened to pee in the beans and rice as well as burn the shelter down; although it was not his promised threat, Brandon later did throw the tribe’s beans and rice all over the ground.
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However, just as writer Dalton Ross put it, this was just Act One. After an immunity challenge,
Hantz was pushed closer to the edge and his anger reached such dangerous levels that host Probst asked Hantz to separate himself from the tribe. The only thing that stopped Hantz from a massive fistful confrontation was Probst holding him back with a deep tissue massage to help calm his anger and nerves. After seeing the violence at camp and the vicious outburst he had just witnessed, Probst granted the tribe permission to hold an impromptu Tribal Council at the scene of the challenge. Brandon verbally cast his vote for Phillip “The Specialist” Shepard, while the rest of his tribe mates unanimously voted Brandon out of the tribe and the game immediately
(“Persona Non Grata”).
Cheating during a challenge is also unacceptable. However, tribes have been known to lose immunity challenges on purpose in order to deliberately go to tribal council. During
Survivor Peal Islands, the Drake tribe had not yet lost an Immunity Challenge after nine days and three tribal councils and therefore had yet to go to tribal council and vote off a tribe mate.
Growing tired of weaker members on the team, the tribe decided to stage a loss at the challenge.
The man who instigated the plan, Burton Roberts, was sent home instead of the proposed weaker players. The once undefeated tribe then lost two sequential tribal councils after throwing the
Immunity Challenge (Pick a Castaway…Any Castaway”).
While it is not against the game rules, another rare occurrence and questionable act is when a castaway removes him- or herself from the game at any point in time. The first contestant to quit Survivor was during season seven, Survivor: Pearl Islands. Despite being physically fit,
Osten Taylor, could not coup with the struggles of camp life and the physical depletion included.
Osten then asked his tribemates to vote him out at the next tribal council. Instead, a visibly upset
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Probst snuffed his torch without going to a vote and then laid his torch down on the ground, making Osten the first person in the history of the show to quit (“What the…? Part 1”).
Jeff Probst has openly spoken about his disgust for Survivor quitters because being on the show is a once in a lifetime opportunity that many applicants wish to have a chance at. Since this paper, ten Survivor castaways have pulled themselves from the game mainly for emotional reasons. One player, Jenna Morasca, returned for Survivor: All-Stars and revealed during days 6-
8 that she was not focused on the game. Instead, she was getting a vibe that her mother’s cancer was worsening. She expressed her regret about returning to the game instead of being at her mother’s side. At that moment, Jenna pulled herself out of the game. Eight days after Jenna returned home, her mother passed away (Peterson 2004). Recently, on Survivor: Blood vs.
Water, Probst did not even let player Colton Cumbie burn his buff on his way out of the game – a Survivor ritual that is featured on seasons that contain the Redemption Island twist. Colton is the first player in Survivor history to quit the game twice. In his first season, Colton was medically removed due to signs of appendicitis. It was later revealed that he had faked the appendicitis in order to be taken out of the game without actually quitting. While Colton was making his exit, an angry Probst said, “there are some people who are meant to live adventures, and there are some people who are meant to sit on their couch and watch” (“Opening Pandora’s
Box”). However, it is interesting enough that the producers would bring back someone who
“quit” if it upset them that they quit in the first place.
One of the biggest rules of the game is that contestants are not allowed to conspire to share the prize money. The million-dollar prize may only be awarded to one individual.
However, this rule has been placed into question during the most recent season of Survivor.
During Survivor: Blood vs. Water contestants are to compete against their loved ones, whether
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they are related through blood (e.g., brother, mother, father, niece) or through water (e.g., boyfriend, wife). How would this main rule come into play if the wife of a contestant won the game? Hopefully this question will be addressed at the end of the season when a winner is chosen.
According to a legal contact from Survivor obtained by writer Andy Dehnart, while the theme is to outwit, outlast and outplay, the contestants must do so while following the United
States law and any local law. Due to a serious nondisclosure clause in all of the contestant’s contracts, castaways must also not reveal how long they or any of the other contestants were in the game for once they have returned home. This would result in the forfeit of their prize money as well as make them open to a lawsuit. If the word gets out about whom won the show, there would be little to no interest to watch. This was especially crucial during the first season,
Survivor: Borneo. Keeping the winner of Survivor is an incredibly stressful feat. Mark Burnett was unable to be in Hollywood for the reveal of the winner of the first ever Survivor at the end of the season in 2000. Instead, he was still in Borneo when he realized that he could finally let go of what had been weighing him down. “I walked to the top of a small hill…took a deep breath and shouted the winner’s name to the world: ‘Riiiiicccchhhhaaaaard Haaaaaaaatch…’” (Dare to
Succeed 170). Other major rules include that the contestants are not allowed to enter the production area, they are not allowed to talk to the cameramen and the cameramen are not allowed to respond.
The cast and crew of Survivor are the heart of the operation. The show would not be complete if it were not for the department heads, award-winning cameramen, lighting crew, gaffers, artists, prop makers, construction workers, production assistants, film editors, medical personnel, boat captains, translators, electricians, carpenters, caterers, technicians and everyone
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else who makes the show run. Due to shooting in desolate locations, the castaways are not the only ones who have to set up camp. The crew have to set up offices, production trailers, temporary means of internet, phone service, satellite, electricity, sewage, laundry facilities, air conditioning, and housing (which is often tents if resorts are not near by) (Lash 2012).
According to a woman named Lash who worked on two episodes of Survivor Thailand, most crewmembers worked a solid 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. She also went on to say that managers, supervisors, department heads, producers and directors worked much longer, generally 16-18 hours a day (Lash 2012). The producers and camera operators stay at the campsites all day and night in order to capture every moment that the castaways experience on the island. Not only is it to ensure that they do not miss any footage, but it is also to guarantee the safety of the contestants (Dehnart 2008). Due to this, the show editors have to then condense the show from thousands of hours of footage into thirteen 45-minute episodes twice a year.
IV. The Changing Game: How it Outwits, Outplays and Outlasts
One of the main reasons Survivor has been on the air for twenty-seven seasons is because the game constantly reinvents itself. According to Dehnart, the contact players must sign in order to be eligible for the show states that producers can change the rules of the game at any point in time, including during challenges (“Survivor Contestant Contract”). The producers realize that the game needs to change from season to season not only to gain the attention of viewers but also to keep the game fair. If the rules and challenges remained the same each season, potential contestants would have the game won in their minds before they even set foot on the island. Each season a new element is introduced into the game: division of tribes, number of tribes, returning players, hidden immunity idols, Redemption Island, tribe swaps, Exile Island, medallion of
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power, and kidnapping are just to name a few. During the first few seasons of Survivor, the only major thing changes from season to season were the exotic location and the castaways. There was a dramatic drop in viewers after season two and have not reached those levels since.
However, the producers knew that it would take more than these location changes to entice new audiences to watch the show and to keep existing audiences interested. However, it is important to note that there are various other elements that would cause for viewership to increase or decrease from season to season but mentioned below are prominent elements of the game.
Beginning in the third season, Survivor: Africa, the tribes were changed prior to the merge. This is when the worlds of the tribes are turned upside-down when they are forced to change teammates and possibly consider changing alliances. During Survivor: Marquesas, the fourth season of the show, contestants were not given any food. Instead, the castaways were to provide for themselves as a replacement for being supplied with the typical rice and limited canned goods or beans. According to Figure 1 there was a boost in viewership from the third season, Survivor: Africa, to the fourth season, Survivor: Marquesas. This steady increase in viewership continued through the fifth season, Survivor: Thailand, where contestants were allowed the chance to mutiny, where they were able to change tribe affiliations at will.
A drop was then seen in average viewers for season 6, Survivor: Amazon. During this season, the contestants were divided into tribes based on gender for the first time in the show’s history. This “Battle of the Sexes” element was also utilized during Survivor: Vanuatu, Survivor:
Panama and Survivor: One World. In addition to this “Battle of the Sexes” twist, Survivor: One
World introduced another twist that has yet to be used since. This particular new element involved the two tribes living on the same beach while competing against one another. The two tribes were then separated on Day 12 of the season. This was most likely done to still see the
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males and females interact, flirt and fight with each other rather than having the two sexes completely separated for twelve days. According to Figure 1, all seasons that utilized this element of “Battle of the Sexes” decreased in average number of viewers from the season prior.
Age played another huge factor in the tribal decisions during Survivor: Panama and
Survivor: Nicaragua. In addition to a “Battle of the Sexes” element in Panama the tribes were also split into age groups (older men, younger men, older women, and younger women). During
Survivor: Nicaragua the initial two tribes were separated by their ages. The Espada tribe consisted of players over the age of forty while the La Flor tribe consisted of players younger than thirty. The producers formatted the challenges of the show to be more innovative and less physical in order to prevent a landslide win of the younger tribe over the older tribe.
Another common twist in the game is the composition of tribes and how they are chosen.
During Survivor: Thailand and Survivor: Gabon, older contestants chose the tribes instead of the producers pre-selecting the tribe affiliations. This shifted the power away from the producers and gave it to the eldest male and eldest female to divide the rest of the group into two tribes. The power was also taken from the producers when the show began with a schoolyard pick of the initial two tribes on Survivor: Palau. These three seasons Thailand, Gabon, and Palau all had increases in viewership from the seasons that preceded them. Therefore, it is safe to assume that this is an interesting element that should be utilized again. However, it is also important that the producers do not use the same elements each season because that would defeat the purpose of trying these new twists and elements.
One of the reoccurring twists to the game of Survivor is Exile Island, which was first implemented during Survivor: Palau and was later used in Survivor: Panama, Cook Islands, Fiji,
Micronesia, Gabon and Tocantins. This twist involves sending a member of the losing tribe to a
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small campsite where he or she would be left banished for a predetermined amount of time all by him- or herself. This leaves that unfortunate player unable to socialize, strategize, or depend on others to survive (find food, make a fire, build a shelter, etc.). Seasons Palau and Gabon both resulted in an increased amount of viewers according to Figure 1.
Exile Island then further inspired the twist called Redemption Island which was first used in Survivor: Redemption Island and then again in Survivor: South Pacific and Survivor: Blood vs. Water. This twist provides the opportunity for an eliminated castaway to re-enter the game.
However, in order to do so, that player must remain on the island after competing in head-to- head challenges with the most recent players voted out of the game. The one who remains on the
Redemption Island by continuing to win the given challenges will then re-enter the game at a further point in time that is determined by the producers. According to Dehnart, the popular Food
Network show, Top Chef Masters, used this same concept that gave eliminated chefs the opportunity to compete in a challenge to return to the game (2013).
One of the twists that keeps fans engaged is a twist that comes towards the end of each season. Survivor: Cook Islands allowed for the final three remaining players in the game to make it to the final tribal council instead of only the last two individuals. According to Jeff Probst, he later explained that the reason behind adopting this end game scenario would be to prevent a strong, well-liked individual face off against a less respected individual. While a final three is now the most common configuration for final tribal council, the producers have been known to switch it back to a final two for the final tribal council from time to time.
While these different game elements are trying to be attention grabbing for viewers,
Survivor: Cook Islands might have sparked their interest over debatable matters. Survivor producers gave Survivor: Cook Islands the show’s most controversial twist ever when they
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divided the initial tribes by ethnicity. Contestants were divided into four different tribes Manihiki
(African American), Aitutaki (Hispanic), Puka Puka (Asian), and Raratonga (Caucasian). Due to this notorious game change, a large number of sponsors pulled their support from the show
(Bresnahan and Lee 75). Sponsors Coca-Cola, Home Depot and General Motors all pulled their advertising spots prior to the premiere of Survivor: Cook Islands. However, they all stated that it was not because of the new racial format the show was adopting (Collins 2006). Yet, if this were true, it took twelve seasons to do so. While the season was extremely debated, Collins states,
“CBS has shown more intestinal fortitude, though perhaps only because Survivor has proven such a durable cash cow since it first launched in 2000.” While the show decreased in viewership for this season, it most likely immensely increased in publicity.
In order to appeal to the niche audience of Survivor, the show began bringing returning players back on the show to give them a second chance and to give Survivor fans another season to watch their favorite players. Season 8 of the show, Survivor: All-Stars, set the playing field for the ultimate Survivor showdown by pitting former castaways against one another. Returning players made a comeback during Survivor: Guatemala where two former contestants returned and were each placed on a tribe on day one. However, Survivor: Micronesia and Survivor:
Caramoan were really targeted at the show’s existing audience because it was Fans vs.
Favorites. During Survivor: Caramoan, the two initial tribes were divided into fans of the game against a tribe of ten popular returning players of the game. Playing off of the All-Star concept,
Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains consisted of all returning players separated into tribes of good and evil based on how they played their game in their prior season. It is difficult to judge whether this concept helps or hurts viewership for the show because it increased viewership for some
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seasons (All-Stars and Heroes vs. Villains) while the other seasons mentioned took a hit in viewership.
As of this paper, the most recent season of Survivor is season 27, Survivor: Blood vs.
Water, running from September 2013 to December 2013. Similar to all other seasons, Survivor producers strive for a different season with twists, turns, and new elements. This most recent season took the show to a completely different level where returning castaways compete against one of their own family members including husbands, wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, children, parents, siblings, uncles and nieces. According to past player Parvati Shallow “Survivor acts as a pressure cooker, and under such extremes people do strange things. The game has a way of showing us what we value and the importance we place on being liked by others, versus furthering our own self-interest and goals of winning” (Shallow, 2013). Essentially, add this thought to the fact that contestants are playing against their loved ones and a whole new aspect is added to the game. According to Probst, “One of the exciting things about this season is we’ve never done it so we don’t know what to anticipate” (Holmes, 2013). This is a brand new concept that the producers are toying with this season.
This season caters to the niche audiences of Survivor because of returning players. In addition, the emotional stories and connections between the players is something that has never before been seen on the show. For this reason, the producers are focusing on gaining a larger audience for the show, or at least trying to lose as few viewers as possible from the previous year by adding these emotional elements. Another famous twist being played in this game is the previously discussed game element of Redemption Island, which allows for contestants to switch places with their loved one if they were still in the game. These two twists have had major effects on tribe alliances, tribal councils, and the shot at the million dollars. Between brotherly
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rivalry, mother-daughter betrayal, and heart-wrenching stories of husband and wife, this season of Survivor is looking to gain better ratings and more support.
According to an interview with Gordon Holmes, Probst says, “Finding the balance of how to do the show is the single most important thing we do creatively.” When discussing how to balance those who favor the ‘classic’ Survivor game and those who crave more twists and turns like Redemption Island, Exile Island and Hidden Immunity Idols, Probst goes on to say, “I like it because Survivor is an evolving game. Our job is to make you uncertain of what will happen so you’re constantly going, ‘If this, then that. If that, then this.’ To go back to a straight game of sixteen people, thirty nine days, and that one will never happen” (Holmes, 2013).
A common misconception is that Survivor is scripted and the contestants are actors.
However, all one has to do is look at any contestant’s skin who has lasted all 39 days; it is most likely excessively sunburnt, bit, scabbed, and scarred. While the actions of the castaways are authentic and unscripted, just like every other show, Survivor is produced for an audience. The producers create an outline to each season in terms of the games construction. While the producers choose the challenges, the rewards, the rules, the location, and the beginning tribes, the castaways make the other decisions in terms of what they say and do while they are in the game. The contestants are filmed 24/7 for the duration of their time competing in the game by cameramen, hidden infrared cameras and hidden microphones. Cameramen even have to follow them when contestants are seeking privacy to use the restroom (Waterworth). All of the action within the footage is real, yet it is at the discretion of the editors and producers as to how to piece it together and which commentary and actions to use to make the show as entertaining as possible to viewers. However, it is important to note that castaways have been asked to read Tree
Mail again for the cameras. Tree Mail is communication to the contestants from the show
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producers about any game related events, mainly what they can expect at upcoming challenges and future game twists. By re-filming this segment, the producers are able to make sure that the audience at home is able to fully understand the clue (Waterworth).
Emergency production meetings are held when the producers believe that life on the island appears too easy for the castaways. In this respect, it is important to note that the castaways do not have the control; the producers have full control (Survivor 53). Host and
Executive Producer, Jeff Probst, even bends the rules. Often, when castaways win individual reward challenges, they are able to choose someone on their tribe to enjoy the reward with.
Contestants on the show have asked Jeff if they could choose another person on the spot and he has been known to say ‘yes’ just a handful of times. The producers are keen to the needs and wants of the contestants, yet this also helps keep the show unpredictable to the producers, players and audiences. During the first season of Survivor, the Pagong tribe commented that the pillow and hammocks were a pointless reward. Instead they wanted food or a spice rack because their rice diet was tasteless and unchanging. The producers heard this and met their needs by rewarding the winning team with pillows, hammocks a spice rack and a hunting knife. Burnett says, “filling a need creates better reality” (Survivor 73). However, one can argue that drama and desperation can add to better reality when needs go unfilled.
Survivor has been known for it’s remote locations in far off countries. However, there has never been a location and most likely never will be a location in a cold climate. Jeff Probst said that fans are constantly asking for a cold-climate season but that it seems “quite unlikely to ever happen” (Holmes). For one reason, the show is primarily shot during the summer months in the
Northern Hemisphere in order to be on production schedule. Additionally, it would present huge setbacks and obstacles for the production crewmembers and sets of challenges. If the show took
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place in a cold climate, it would lose a vast majority of sex appeal because contestants would have to be bundled in clothing as opposed to in bikinis, swim trunks and often bras and underwear.
Producer Mark Burnett made the show into a flexible social experiment. Since day one, the power has been in the hands of the producers to be able to switch the game any which way they want. The game can be compared to a living organism because it is constantly adapting.
While each season is not a success, it is a success that the show has been able to be on the air for twenty-seven seasons by combining different game elements, new players, and emotional twists for an always fresh season.
V. Representation & Adaptation of Contestants
Anyone and everyone can apply to be on Survivor. Therefore, casting has an entire country to choose contestants from. The application is found on CBS.com for those who are brave and insane enough to embark on this televised journey of self-discovery. All that is required to apply is an online application, a short video, and a recent photo (“Survivor
Application”). In addition, applicants must be eighteen or older and a U.S. citizen. Once this has been submitted, it is all up to casting to decide which applicants they should look into further.
The youngest player to play the game is Spencer Duhm from Survivor: Tocantins at the age of eighteen. While the oldest player to ever play the game is Rudy Boesch at the age of seventy-two from the first season, Survivor: Borneo (Waterworth 2013). All ages, ethnicities, backgrounds, professions, and personalities have had a chance at the game.
Over forty-nine thousand people across America applied to be contestants on the second season of Survivor, which later became the most successful season ever in terms of ratings and
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viewership. From those applications, casting personnel in sixteen different cities then interviewed eight hundred fortunate people. According to Burnett, no question was off limits during these interviews in order to get a glimpse at the true complexity of the potential candidates. “Sex, drugs, you name it. Needless to say confidentiality was the order that day.”
However, an essential trait the casting directors look for in potential contestants is the driving desire to want to desperately play the game (Survivor II 28). It is also essential to cast different personalities in order to leave the door open for conflict.
The cast on the first season of Survivor was described by Mark Burnett as the following:
“The Gay Man (Richard), the Wild Woman (Kelly), the African American Male (Gervase),
Fargo (Susan), the Rebel Without a Cause (Greg), the Coquette (Colleen), the Soccer Mom
(Gretchen), the Old Man (Rudy), the Yuppie (Sean), and the Single Mom (Jenna) (Survivor 117).
While casting and the producers are able to place such a generalized label on contestants, these people are far more complex than these labels describe. All from different cities, backgrounds, professions, ages, and ethnicities, these players brought their own experiences and personalities into the game and often defied their own stereotypes. For example, during this season an unexpected and heartwarming relationship developed between Rudy Boesch, the old politically incorrect, rough and rugged retired United States Navy SEAL, and Richard Hatch, the naked and homosexual corporate trainer. Burnett commented on their relationship, “Richard and Rudy had become so close that members of the crew were comparing them to Darth Vader and Luke
Skywalker, wondering aloud if Rudy weren’t actually Richard’s father” (Survivor 85). Another unexpected “mother-daughter” relationship developed between Sue, the thirty-eight year old blunt truck driver and Kelly, the then twenty-two year old college student and whitewater rafting
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guide. These relationships are just two examples of the complexities of the contestants on the show. One of the largest elements of the game Survivor is unpredictability.
As mentioned earlier in this piece, the producers were unable to predict the outburst of
Brandon “Hurricane” Hantz during Survivor: Caramoan. While many after his first season on the show questioned Brandon’s emotional stability, Jeff said the producers and casting directors still made the decision to bring him back on the show. “We felt Brandon had the potential for a true underdog store of a young man who was overwhelmed the first time he played and was seeking redemption” (Ross, Survivor: Caramoan). Yet, as discussed earlier, Brandon failed to do so and was easily more overwhelmed the second time around when he had his infamous and almost violent outburst on the show. “We never let anybody on the show who can’t pass the psych test. Brandon passed. He was also great in our interviews before the show began” (Ross,
Survivor: Caramoan). The remote location, emotional exhaustion, lack of amenities and food all add to the pressure cooker of Survivor. It is almost impossible to predict how someone sitting in a casting director’s office, or in this case a returning player, is going to react to all of the elements Survivor entails on a given day of the game.
A few contestants have disapproved of how they are portrayed while on the show and have blamed the producers and editors for portraying them in a false light and/or only showing their unfavorable moments throughout the game. One contestant, Jerri Manthey from Survivor:
Australian Outback returned for Survivor: All-Stars. During the reunion show of her second season, Jerri went on a rant on live television to discuss how her image from the show affected her personal life. She stated, “This show is a show about entertainment; this entertainment is coming at a price. What it has cost us? Our friendships, our feelings, our pain, our suffering for entertainment.” Jeff replied, “It has cost some of you friendships” while a fellow castaway said,
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“We all signed up for this voluntarily.” Later in the reunion, Jeff says if you have any questions about the authenticity of this show, Jerri Manthey has left. She left the reunion show after being booed by over 5,000 people during her speech (“The Reunion” 2004). However, her feelings must not have lasted because she ended up returning to the game for a third season during
Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains.
Two seasons of Survivor are filmed back to back during the same summer and in the same location. These two seasons are then showed during the following fall and spring. This is a better process than the show filming in two separate locations each summer, which would lead to a higher production cost and more massive amounts of planning for everyone and everything involved. Seven Survivor contestants have played on back-to-back seasons that are filmed during the same summer. These contestants were only given a two and one-half week break between the two seasons and the chance to compete again prior to their first season being aired.
One contestant, Malcolm, played on back-to-back seasons on Survivor Philippines and
Survivor: Caramoan (also known as Fans vs. Favorites 2). He began playing the game that summer as a Survivor rookie and entered the next season that same summer as a fan favorite. Jeff
Probst commented on the matter with an interview with Ross Dalton, “With Malcolm, we knew we were bringing him back probably 20 days into the game unless he won. I was calling Mark
[Burnett] and saying, ‘I think we should consider leaving an opening,’ and CBS was very trusting.” He continued about Malcolm’s return, “maybe three minutes after he was voted out when I went up to him after his torch had been snuffed and said, ‘Sooooo…’” Malcolm replied to Probst saying, “I can tell. I know. I get it. I should play again. And I’m ready. I don’t even need to go home. I’m good to go” (Ross).
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There is debate as to the pros and cons of back-to-back season offers. Some say that there is an advantage because no one has seen that contestant play, as his or her season has not aired yet. This could then make him or her less of a target. However, the competitors should be aware that the producers would only bring back contestants that were successful or popular in order to please the audience. There are also disadvantages to playing on back-to-back seasons because contestants are only given two and a half weeks between seasons to physically recuperate. Ross argues that another disadvantage is that these returning players have not yet made friends with other returning players, which can be detrimental to their game if playing with other veterans.
Whether the contestants are first time players or returning players, it is never certain how they are going to react to the game, the harshness of the given remote location, and interact with the other contestants. While casting directors believe that they have pinned a label on a contestant, there are much more underlying complexities to them highlighted on the island that the casting director might not have seen in the environment of their office. One of the reasons
Survivor has been able to be on the air for twenty-seven seasons is because it truly is a social experiment. Solely in terms of casting, whether the seasons feature the same contestants or not, the social elements and interactions are different every single time. This keeps viewers engaged and armchair psychologists thrilled.
VI. Adapting to Technology: Social Media
One way Survivor adapts is by evolving with technology. Figure 2 on the next page is from the Pew Research Center who tracks the Internet usage of American adults (ages 18+). The first season of Survivor aired in 2000 when only 47% of adults used the Internet. Now, in 2013
78% of U.S. adults use the Internet and Survivor is completely taking advantage of it. According
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to Dehnart, Survivor launched its social media presence in November of 2011 and since then its presence has expanded in order to give fans a platform for their thoughts, feedback and interaction.
Figure 2.
Many reality game shows today call for the judgment from American viewers. These shows include but are not limited to American Idol (Fox), Big Brother (CBS), Dancing with the
Stars (ABC), The Voice (NBC), and America’s Got Talent (NBC). All of these shows engage their audiences by having them decide the outcome of the season by voting for their favorite contestants. Many vote online, by calling in, or by texting a certain predestinated number. Due to the nature of Survivor, it would change every aspect of the game if the fate of the players were in the hands of Americans sitting at home watching every move of the contestants from the comfort of their own couch. This would remove the majority of genuine relationships, strategies and alliances that are formed on the show. The castaways on Survivor are voted to win one million
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dollars by the jury consisted of the tribemates they voted off, not the American public. However, in 2004 Survivor opened the floor to America.
After the winner of the Survivor million-dollar prize was announced on the finale of
Survivor: All-Stars in 2004, a second million-dollar winner was going to be announced and voted for by the American public. From May 9th to May 12th 2004, millions of people voted through their cell phones and on CBS.com for their favorite castaway out of the All-Star contestants from the season. After the finale a separate episode aired called, America’s Tribal Council and a second million-dollar check was awarded to All-Star contestant Rupert Boneham. Opening the doors to the American public caused for some criticism from Survivor fans. Many feared that this was the future of Survivor. By offering a second million-dollar prize, fans felt that it would affect the mentality for those playing the game in the sense that if they failed to be voted as the winner by their peers, they could still be eligible to win the popularity contest amongst the American public. This would also encourage contestants to act differently, possibly less genuine and frank, during their in-show confessionals in order to frame themselves to become more popular amongst the public. However, these fears were put to rest because the second million–dollar prize has not returned.
Instead, since Survivor: China (2007) a $100,000 prize for the viewer-voted Sprint Player of the Season has been awarded. By naming the contest, “Sprint Player of the Season,” it implies that the award recognizes more strategy than it does popularity. However, it is impossible to know the true motives of the voters and why they vote for the Sprint Player of the Season. Fans are also incentivized to cast their vote because for each vote they cast, they increase their chances at winning $10,000 for themselves. A fan wins $10,000 every week during the twelve weeklong season. According to the Sprint Player of the Week Sweepstakes Official Rules on
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CBS.com, each fan can vote up to ten times per week. Contestants, Bob, J.T. and Rob Mariano have all gone on to win both the Sole Survivor award and the Sprint Player of the Season award for the same season which furthers their earnings even more.
The CBS.com website page for Survivor is a social and entertainment hub for Survivor fans. As television viewers are controlling more of the reigns of watching television on-demand,
Survivor is catering to these viewers by posting all of a current season’s episodes on CBS.com where they can be watched in full length after the episode originally airs on CBS during it’s normal time slot. Also available on CBS.com are “Classic Episodes” for the ultimate fans and for those who were not watching when the show first aired. These featured “classic” episodes date back to 2004. Interviews with the contestants prior to the beginning of the game, extra scenes not shown on television, show previews and the Survivor After Show are also available on CBS.com.
Past Survivor contestant and winner, Parvati Shallow, hosts the online series called the After
Show. During this web series, host Parvati Shallows interviews the most recently voted off castaways about their time on the island.
One of the most transparent aspects of the show Survivor is another web-exclusive show,
Life at Ponderosa, which has been in existence since Survivor: Micronesia in 2008. This web series is comprised of weekly installments after a member is voted out of the game and becomes a member of the jury. The show follows the recently voted off contestant from his or her elimination at tribal council to Ponderosa. Ponderosa, also known as the “Losers’ Lounge” and the “Jury House” is where the eliminated jury members stay after they are voted out of the game.
These contestants are part of the jury and will attend each of the remaining tribal councils until the finale and therefore required to stay on location instead of going back home to America.
They are also required to stay on location because the producers do not want any information
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leaked out to the public that would spoil the season, especially about which contestants are no longer in the game. Fans and skeptics always wonder what life is like once a contestant gets voted off and this web series makes that possible.
After each contestant is voted off and his or her torch is snuffed, the castaway is then examined by the medical team for weight loss and overall health. The contestant then also talks to an on-site psychologist because the change from living in a game on an island back to the real world can be difficult for many. The web show Life at Ponderosa displays the player enjoying everyday activities and luxuries that were not available during the game. These amenities include looking in a mirror for the first time in weeks, regular meals, showering and shaving, and interacting with people other than the castaways. This also includes the voted off castaway to rejoin the rest of the contestants who were voted off. This can lead to confrontation as to why players voted each other off because the feelings are still so fresh, gossip about the players still in the game, and often truth is revealed behind in-game strategy and lies. It also gives these eliminated players the chance to convince others as to why they are voting for whom they are voting for to win the title of “Sole Survivor” and the one million dollar prize at the final tribal council.
The Survivor Twitter page brings the latest news to Survivor fans. As of this paper, the
Twitter page for the show had 265,348 followers and 3,363 Tweets. During the most recent season of Survivor, the show hosted a “Survivor Twitter Party” where fans were encouraged to tweet questions to fifteen popular past Survivor contestants. The “Twitter Party” occurred during both the 8pm ET and 8pm PT airing of an episode (Survivor Facebook Page). Furthermore, fans are encouraged to engage with the television show by tweeting their opinions using #Survivor.
During recent episodes of the show, fans were encouraged to use hashtags like
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#SurvivorBreakdown for when contestants are having an emotional breakdown,
#CoconutBandits when contestants are eating coconuts behind the backs of their tribemates,
#DrawingRocks when there was a tie vote, and #TribalCouncil. Figure 3 displays the #Survivor
24-Hour Trend Graph of the hashtag analytics for the specific hashtag for a 24-hour period on
December 4, 2013. The Survivor: Blood vs. Water episode “Rustle Feathers” originally aired that night at 7pm. According to the website that composed this information, Hashtags.org, the information displayed in the graph used Twitter’s streaming API for a 1 percent sample of all tweets. The graph depicts that “#survivor” received a little less than 10,000 hashtags from the sample during the show period between 7pm and 8pm.
Figure 3.
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Many past players as well as the producers Mark Burnett and host Jeff Probst are active and have verified accounts on Twitter. I wanted to see how accessible Jeff Probst really was on
Twitter so I tweeted him in regard to writing my thesis on Survivor. I even added a popularly used Survivor hashtag. To my surprise the host of Survivor responded within thirty-minutes of my tweet. Figure 4. is a photo of my brief Twitter conversation with Jeff Probst.
Figure 4.
Unfortunately, for those on the West Coast, depending on the times of Probst’s tweets, he could spoil what occurs in an episode because of the time difference of when the episode airs across the country. Probst engages with Survivor fans by offering prizes when fans tweet photos of Survivor watching parties or showing their Survivor gear (whether it is homemade or purchased through CBS). Probst also gives fans a glimpse of Survivor behind the scenes. Prior to the Survivor finale on May 13th 2012, Probst tweeted a photo of himself in the dressing room
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holding the final votes in hand prior to walking out on stage (Figure 5). This further engages fans with Survivor by giving them a sneak peak in the world behind the show.
Figure 5.
However, there is a dark side to past and present Survivor players having a strong social media presence on Twitter. If a fan was mad at a contestant’s game play back in Season 1 in
2000, there was no immediate way for that viewer to express his or her negative feelings directly to that player. Now, these players are just a click away from viewers. According to Holmes
(2013), there was an unfortunate incident during Season 26 where contestant, Dawn Meehan, received all kinds of threatening messages after voting out fellow castaway, Brenda Lowe. Jeff commented, “Dawn went through a lot. I read things about Dawn that broke my heart. People
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saying, ‘I hope your kids die’…” He continues, “That’s why people say, ‘Don’t read the blogs.’ I can’t not read them. I’m looking for some insight. I’m looking for something positive about what
I bring to the game…I engage in social media because I believe there are people who enjoy the conversation about Survivor and I like getting it back from them.” Jeff continues to say that he loves engaging in debates with fans about Redemption Island or a Final Three vs. Final Two.
“There is no right or wrong. I learn things [from these debates] that I take back to the team.” Yet, bringing it back to the dark side about social media, “Some days I’ll think, ‘Why am I wasting my time with people who clearly have nothing positive to say?’ And then I remind myself that this is a small fraction” (Holmes, 2013).
Survivor also has a strong social media presence on Facebook with over three million
“likes” as of the publication of this paper. Facebook also tracks that the page has 21,158 users talking about the show as of November 21, 2013. The page encourages fans to interact with the show by posting questions about the most recent episodes or actions of players. The site also keeps fans up to date on past Survivor contestants, gives teasers for upcoming episodes and reminds fans of when the show is going to air. This official page also changes to reflect the current season in terms of site photos, graphics and content (Facebook.com/Survivor, 2013).
Ultimately, Survivor has adapted to the ever changing and increasing ways to use technology to communicate with fans. By utilizing the powers of social media, the show has been able to further engage viewers with the franchise. Now, more than ever before, players and the host Jeff Probst are able to virtually talk to fans in the matter of seconds. While this holds some negative consequences, the good outweighs the evil in terms of getting more personal with fans, getting their opinions, and to share their own personal thoughts and feelings about the
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show. While Survivor has a great social media platform, it still has yet to establish official accounts on major social media sites like Instagram and Pinterest.
VII. Conclusion
In order for Survivor to “outwit, outlast, and outplay” uprising competitors and long- lasting competitors like Amazing Race, Real World, and Big Brother it needs to keep establishing a unique selling proposition for audiences to tune in each season. The producers have been able to do this by adding new elements to the show, further engaging and deepening fan interaction on social media and by reinventing itself. These new elements like innovative complex challenges, a twist on game rules, changes in remote locales, and the casting composition all add to the pressure cooker of Survivor.
The show has been able to survive twenty-seven seasons because it is a flexible social experiment that allows viewers at home to see how individuals react when their world gets flipped upside down. This happens when the contestants are first set on the island without amenities and again when producers add a new game twist to throw off their alliances, strategies and sometimes mental stability.
Survivor engages viewers by displaying the stories of people under extreme pressure and allowing for these viewers to voice their love and hate for the show on many prominent social media platforms. From the inception of the show in 2000 and the increase in Internet usage to the splintering of television channels, the show has found ways to keep Survivor afloat. While viewership for the show has been in a gradual decline and we may never see the ratings again from the first three seasons, the producers are constantly toying with different factors to draw in audiences and to satisfy the audience that has been there from the start, Survivor: Borneo.
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Producers just need to find the right recipe of game twists, fan engagement, and casting in order to ensure another ratings victory. Hopefully Survivor continues to survive in the future due to its characteristics of its constant ability to evolve, adaptability, true reality, and extreme adventure.
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Burnett, Mark, prod. "What The...? Part 1." Survivor: Pearl Islands. CBS. 30 Oct. 2003. Television.
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CBS. Official Survivor Facebook Page. Facebook. Web. 23 Nov. 2013.
Collins, Scott. "Sponsors Race to Get Off the Island." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 04 Sept. 2006. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.
Dehnart, Andy. "Survivor Contestant Contract: The Waivers, Agreements That Cast Members, Families Sign." Reality Blurred. Movable Type, 31 May 2010. Web. 03 Dec. 2013.
Dehnart, Andy. "Survivor’s Social Media Takeover: Weird." Reality Blurred. Movable Type, 9 Nov. 2011. Web. 25 Oct. 2013.
Dehnart, Andy. "Why the Sudden Flood of Survivor- and Amazing Race-style Shows This Summer?" Reality Blurred. Movable Type, 12 Sept. 2013. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.
Holmes, Gordon. "‘Survivor’ Host Jeff Probst Discusses Classic ‘Survivor’ vs. Tons of Twists." Xfinity. Comcast, 11 Sept. 2013. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.
Holmes, Gordon. "Will There Ever Be a Cold-Weather Survivor Season? Jeff Probst Answers..." Xfinity. Comcast, 15 Oct. 2012. Web. 01 Dec. 2013.
Kissell, Rick. "An Eye-Land Paradise: CBS Sets Summer Record with 'Survivor'" Daily Variety (2000): 1. LexisNexis Academic. Web. 10 Oct. 2013.
Peterson, Todd. "Tearful Jenna Quits 'All-Stars'" People. Time Inc., 13 Feb. 2004. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.
38 Survivor: Outwit, Outplay, Outlast Harrison
Probst, Jeff. "Twitter @JeffProbst." Twitter. Twitter, Inc., n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.
Ross, Dalton. "'Survivor: Caramoan': Brandon Hantz Has the Show's Biggest Meltdown Ever." Entertainment Weekly. Entertainment Weekly Inc., 13 Mar. 2013. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.
Ross, Dalton. "'Survivor: Caramoan': Jeff Probst Explains How He Handled the Brandon Hantz Meltdown and What We Did NOT See." EW.com. Entertainment Weekly Inc., 14 Mar. 2013. Web. 1 Dec. 2013.
Ross, Dalton. "'Survivor: Caramoan': Jeff Probst Reveals When They Decided to Bring Malcolm Back and What They Told Other Players about Him." Entertainment Weekly. Entertainment Weekly Inc., 22 Jan. 2013. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.
Rutenberg, Jim. "TV Notes: And Then There Was One: 'Survivor' Counts Down." The New York Times 23 Aug. 2000, Late Edition ed., E, The Arts/Cultural Desk sec.: 1. LexisNexis Academic. Web. 10 Oct. 2013.
Shallows, Parvati. "Parvati Shallow Recaps 'Survivor: Blood vs. Water': Mother vs. Daughter." The Hollywood Reporter. The Hollywood Reporter, 21 Nov. 2013. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.
"Sprint Player of the Week Sweepstakes Official Rules." CBS. CBS Interactive, 2013. Web. 05 Dec. 2013. http://www.cbs.com/shows/survivor/player_of_the_week/rules.
"Survivor: All-Stars." Survivor Wiki. Wikia Entertainment, Sept. 2011. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
"Survivor Application." CBS Survivor Casting. CBS, n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.
"Title: The Philosophy of Ibn Tufail and His Treatise the Self-Taught Philosopher." WDL World Digital Library. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2013.
Waterworth, Ben. "The Random Secrets Episode." Survivor Oz. Edge Radio. Podcast. Australia, 31 July 2013. Radio.
39 Survivor: Outwit, Outplay, Outlast Harrison
Figure 1
Season 1 Armstrong, Mark. ""Survivor" Sequel Takes on "Friends"" E! Online. E! Entertainment Television, LLC. A Division of NBCUnviseral, 18 Dec. 2000. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Season 2 Littleton, Cynthia. "'Survivor' Return Facing Tougher Terrain." The Hollywood Reporter. BPI Communications, Inc, 11 Oct. 2001. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Season 3 Schneider, Michael. "Daily Variety." Daily Variety. Reed Elsevier Inc., 27 Mar. 2002. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Season 4 ""SURVIVOR: MARQUESAS" DEBUTS IMPRESSIVELY." Showtime Press Express. CBS Broadcasting, Inc., 1 Mar. 2002. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Season 5 "Updated: Survivor Is Back and So Are The Viewers - Especially Young Ones." PR Newswire. PR Newswire, 20 Sept. 2001. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Season 6 Reality TV World Staff. "'Survivor: The Amazon' Premiere Draws 23.26mil Viewers, Outpaces Debut of 'Survivor: Thailand'" Reality TV World. Reality TV World, 14 Feb. 2003. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Season 7 "Donald Trump Disses Martha Stewart's 'Apprentice,' Blames Her for His Own Ratings Problems." Reality TV World. Reality TV World, 22 Oct. 2005. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Season 9 The Times Union. "NIELSENS: 'CSI,' 'Survivor' Carry CBS." NIELSENS: 'CSI,' 'Survivor' Carry CBS | Jacksonville.com. Jacksonville.com, 17 Dec. 2004. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Season 10 The Times Union. "Nielsens." Jacksonville.com. Jacksonville.com, 29 Apr. 2005. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Season 11 The Times Union. "NIELSENS: Emmys,' 'Survivor' Strong Players for CBS | Jacksonville.com." Emmys,' 'Survivor' Strong Players for CBS | Jacksonville.com. Jacksonville.com, 23 Sept. 2005. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
40 Survivor: Outwit, Outplay, Outlast Harrison
Season 12 The Times Union. "Nielsens: Fox Has No. 1 Show, but CBS Wins Week."Jacksonville.com. Jacksonville.com, 19 May 2006. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Season 13 Gough, Paul. "Survivor Starts Slow Thurs." The Hollywood Reporter 24 Sept. 2007: n. pag. LexisNexisAcademic. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Season 14 Gough, Paul. "Survivor Starts Slow Thurs." The Hollywood Reporter 24 Sept. 2007: n. pag. LexisNexisAcademic. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Season 15 "ABC Medianet." ABC Medianet. American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., 23 Sept. 2008. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Season 16 "ABC Medianet." ABC Medianet. American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., 19 May 2009. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Season 17 "ABC Medianet." ABC Medianet. American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., 19 May 2009. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Season 18 "ABC Medianet." ABC Medianet. American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., 19 May 2009. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Season 19 Andreeva, Nellie. "Full Series Rankings For The 2009-10 Broadcast Season." Deadline. PMC, 27 May 2010. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Season 21 Andreeva, Nellie. "Full 2010-2011 TV Season Series Rankings." Deadline. PMC, 27 May 2011. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Season 22 Andreeva, Nellie. "Full 2010-2011 TV Season Series Rankings." Deadline. PMC, 27 May 2011. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Season 23 Andreeva, Nellie. "Full 2011-2012 TV Season Series Rankings." Deadline. PMC, 24 May 2012. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Season 24 Andreeva, Nellie. "Full 2011-2012 TV Season Series Rankings." Deadline. PMC, 24 May 2012. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Season 25 Patten, Dominic. "Full 2012-2013 TV Season Series Rankings." Deadline. PMC, 23 May 2013. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
41 Survivor: Outwit, Outplay, Outlast Harrison
Season 26 Patten, Dominic. "Full 2012-2013 TV Season Series Rankings." Deadline. PMC, 23 May 2013. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Figure 2.
"Internet Adoption, 1995-2013." Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project. Pew Internet & American Life Project Surveys, May 2013. Web. 24 Oct. 2013.
Figure 3.
"Analytics for #survivor." #hashtags.org Organizing the World's Hashtags. Hashtags.org, 05 Dec. 2013. Web. 05 Dec. 2013.
Figure 4 and Figure 5
Probst, Jeff. "Twitter @JeffProbst." Twitter. Twitter, Inc., n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.
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