Survivor - Concept History

The creation of the Survivor concept, although credited to Charlie Parsons, was actually conceived by Bob Geldof’s Planet 24 television company. It initially failed to attract the attention of any of the major broadcasters in Britain or the United States and was eventually sold to the Swedish television company Strix Television as Expedition Robinson (alluding to Robinson Crusoe). After some public debate and putting the show on hold a few weeks while removing a few scenes not fit for public service TV, it became a major hit when it debuted in 1997 in Sweden.

The initial U.S. series was a huge ratings success in 2000 and, along with ABC’s prime-time game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, sparked a reality-television revolution in the USA. The popularity of these shows prompted networks to push sitcoms and conventional drama series aside and rushed their own reality shows into development. Even the Fox Network, which had vowed never to air a reality show again just months earlier following media outrage surrounding its Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire? program, broke its promise and launched several competitors of its own. Survivor’s second season, in the winter/spring of 2001, drew even larger audiences. Subsequent U.S. versions have attracted smaller but still substantial audiences. There have also been British and Australian versions of the show in 2001 and 2002 respectively. Both were considered ratings failures. Indeed in Britain, its failure was a national joke (though ratings for the UK series were considerably lower than ITV had hoped for, it still regularly attracted six to eight million viewers, a decent rather than huge audience, but enough for ITV to commission a second series which appeared a year later). TF1 France has produced seven seasons of Koh-Lanta, a French version of Survivor, and a Japanese version was also produced for four installments which achieved some success.^[1] Broadcast rights for the American version have been sold to various broadcasters and is viewed in many countries around the world. The first ever Celebrity Survivor, made in Australia, attained moderate ratings. The first season of the Israeli version of the show, “Hisardut” (”survival”), has aired in 2007-2008, with its final episode being aired on 17 May 2008.

The First Challenge - Survivor Philippines

Around 12 minutes delay to the target start of 9:15 pm is very much forgiveable especially to those anticipating the much awaited premiere. GMA 7 already unveiled the official website as well as the show starts.

Quick Account:

Chopper Shots      

Paolo Bediones gallantly gives a birds - eye tour of Koh Tarutao Islands - brief history and classic shots of dangerous animals and wildlife, except of course for the Butanding or whale shark  

The First Challenge    

The 18 Castaways are told that they are going to an island for an interview. They have no idea that the 39 days have already started. They are not allowed to speak or talk to one another. They have nothing but the clothes their wearing when Paolo instructs them to jump off the boat and swim towards the shore

Noticeably, Paolo narrates his observations or assumptions on each of the castaways while they are swimming. The hunky Rob, ironically could hardly swim and clings on to a poor girl. Kiko shows a “messiah complex” for escorting the girls. While another guy, Emerson, cries for help for cramps… the black belter, right? Marlon, the waiter - cook, bargains for a lifesaver.

The VTR introductions started with Jace who incidentally finishes the race first. Zita, the laundrywoman with 7 kids and 12 grandkids finishes at second place. Jace or his group gets the bigger camp.

CASTAWAY VTRs

Among the VTRs, Zita states something catchy. “Gusto ko makilala ako ng buong Pilipinas, bago man lang ako mamatay… para rin sa mga anak ko..” Something like that. 

Patani is already a character with her classic Showbiz dreams… “Sisikat ako, magkakaroon ng fans. interview.. ganun!” 

JC says that he is willing to do anything, even if it is not in his personality. That’s how survivor is.

The First Group Reward Challenge     

The castaways are then divided by gender to form 2 groups. Guys go to Jarakay while girls goes to Naak. The rewards are materials for their future shelter.

Tied up together at first, the group had to finish a series of obstacle courses - zip line, web challenge etc… The end goal is for the Puzzle solver to, well solve the eagle puzzle. To which, the male group has accomplished but the girls almost caught on.  

The guys get the shelter materials while the girls also got personal stuff, but they have to remain chained or tied together until the next day.

Finally, Paolo is out of the picture after narrating almost every moment of the show.

The Naak Female group yap about the location for their shelter. Charisse says she’s on the verge of crying during the first night. Zita shares that her house is no different than their present condition.

The Jarakay Male group also was not able to build a shelter since it’s already dark. JC admits that on the first day, he almost wanted to back-out.

The search for food is on for the second episode. 

Alright guys, what’s your verdict?