Not a lot of confidence when the chief programming editor can’t even get the Survivor slogan correct. Aso a Jeff Probst look-alike host and 24 contestants. This is not looking good. 
I wonder if the Samoa location is the same that has been used previously in the US. I know they are currently filming close by for the next 2 US seasons.
According to TV Tonight survivor will go for 55 days instead of the US 39.
This was also confirmed at the launch last night and in a package on Studio 10 this morning.
The prize money is also half that of the American version, only $500,000.
But pretty much double what any Reality TV show offers these days. back in the day 500k was almost the norm.
there is a saying. Don’t judge a book by its cover
What do you mean? Of course a lot of us Survivor fans who have watched the show for 32 seasons are going to judge especially when there are quite a few apparent things that already stand out. Way more contestants, heaps more days yet half the prize money. People are going to form opinions.
That extra 2.5 weeks has got to be a killer on the contestants. Survivor is a harsh game physically… I can’t imagine them spending that amount of time out there unless they are given a few more luxuries than the US version. If you watch Ponderosa and see how much weight contestants lose after just a couple of weeks… that extra time in addition would be brutal.
Do we have any further info on the number of episodes they plan on doing? 10 probably plan on airing this 4 nights a week with a vote off every second episode. I can see them doing reward challenge and immunity challenge epsiode. With 24 contestants it means 22 tribal councils so that way they could probably make it last about 10 weeks and 40 episodes. 
I think contestants will stick it out for 55 days without luxuries… It might be hard but 500k is still a hell of a lot of money. I was going to try out this year but didn’t finish my application in time. Will wait for next year
In this weeks mediaweek podcast Rove told James Manning that he knew about Australian Survivor before it was announced. He also said he would’ve considered working on the show and went on to say that he was offered the opportunity but it wouldn’t have been possible with his radio commitments on 2dayfm breakfast.
You can listen to it here from 31:45: https://soundcloud.com/mediaweek/rove-mcmanus-and-sam-frost
Well thank god for that. Rove would have been AWFUL to host Survivor. Even though they seem to have gone for a Probst lookalike, personally I perfer they’ve gone for a lesser known person hosting this than someone like Rove. Although that’s my personal opinion as a Survivor fan. Given this show needs to appeal to a wider than normal Survivor audience someone like Jamie Durie might have been better. He’s one of the few more known names that I still think perfectly fits the hosting role of Survivor.
I don’t think its vital to have a “well known” to host these type of shows. Gretel, the Masterchef judges, TBL’s Ajay, Idol’s Dicko, Andrew G, etc - they were all relative “unknowns” as big event TV hosts (with a little bit of awareness in other fields). Infact, I’d argue if you want to offer viewers something fresh, then make your own stars.
Trying to do a format that’s 16 years old and has been attempted and failed here twice before is not really something fresh. 
I was clearly referring to the host, but I take your point.
Already the way Ten are selling and promoting this it feels much bigger than the failed versions on Seven and Nine. Ten might succeed here where others have failed.
Agree. Ten have a knack and history for launching big event stuff. I’d say the odds are in their favour for this one to be a hit - if not this season, then the next.
I completely disagree as everything we’ve heard so far points to Ten making this season as gimmicky and as stretched out as possible. The reason Ten are promoting this is because they are relying on it later in the year to be their staple show. Had it been a normal sized cast and a 1 episode a week show I would have had a bit more faith. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how it turns out.
Just ignore the failures they had with X Factor, Everybody Dance Now, I Will Survive, The Resort, The Renovators and Yasmin’s Getting Married. 
I understand you are saying this as a survivor fan. But lets be real here. A traditional survivor season won’t work financially or strategically here in Australia. The way Ten have gone about this is the only way that they could make it viable on a more than once a week basis. I am not sure if this will turn into a success or not but so far it has generated plenty of buzz and looks to be heading in a hit direction. But we have seen this before - thinking a show will be a hit and then turning into a flop and we have seen the opposite thinking a show will be a flop but turning into a hit. Time will tell.
No. We are just conditioned to the fact that a reality show needs to be on multiple nights a week. Until Masterchef really took off there were very few shows that ran multiple nights a week. Seven was able to do a show like The amazing Race that would be just as expensive (if not more) as a once a week show and that lasted a few seasons. However at the same time they completely ruined a previously successful format like The Mole by airing it multiple nights a week. Survivor is at the very same risk.
Ten’s record with trialing different reality formulas is also not that crash hot in recent years apart from Masterchef and Bachelor/ette. Maybe we will be lucky and it will only be 2 nights a week… Otherwise it’s a shame TV networks these days think everything needs to be dragged out allllll weeeeeekkkkk.
So if we’re talking about the last 15 years, to produce MEGA hits, shows that pretty much defined a TV generation such as Big Brother, Idol and Masterchef and to a lesser extent The Bachelor, I think that’s a good innings. My point should be - they know how to create Event Television when they have the desire, the resources and talent onboard.
Both Big Brother and The Biggest Loser, and then Masterchef, all worked for Ten on multiple nights. It’s their modern take on soaps - viewers invest more in the characters if they are framed as a serial. At with so much money at stake, it’s more worthwhile to create as much daily content as possible.