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Why is Survivor Still on TV?
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Since its inception, the show has consistently been #1 in its time slot. Fifty-two million people watched the first season finaleas many as watched the series finale of Friends. Survivor's numbers have slowly tapered off since then, but they've been holding strong for several years at around 9 million, outlasting virtually all its reality-TV offspring and suggesting that Survivor is down to a loyal, core audiencemany of whom find each other online. There are still highly active message boards and forums where users debate the tactics of each contestant, cheer for their favorite, and analyze the show's editing for hints at who might become champion.
Who are these 9 million peopleand why do they care?
Survivor is one of my all time favorite television shows. To paraphrase Tyler Perry; Survivor is the Gold Standard of Reality Television.
I am amazed that I continue to watch this show every single season and I am always hooked.
I honestly thought Survivor was done after the two seasons that happened in the Fall of 2005 (this was the season that Tom won and that featured the tribe that lost every single immunity challenge)
and the Spring of 2006. At that point I felt that Survivor was getting very boring and predictable. Whatever alliance got the numbers at the merge would just pick off the minority alliance. It was typically very easy to see who was going to win one or two episodes after the merge.
One of the things that Survivor does very well is to listen to its fans and recreate itself with new twist. The Spring 2006 season was the one that was won by Aras. After that was when Survivor had the two "Racial Seasons" (Fall of 2006, Spring 2007) and I think the show rebounded in a major way. I can't remember when the Hidden Immunity Idol was introduced, but that has been huge in shaking up how alliances get to the end of the game.
I absolutely love the concept of this season. I had gotten tired of the same old Survivor Celebrities reappearing every few seasons. I had always wanted to see a season of (forgotten) players that had played really well but bowed out of the game early.
The players that got voted in for this season are almost all the ones that I would have chose. In particular I always felt that Kelly Wigglesworth, Jeremy and Savage all deserved a second chance.
The Second thing that I want to see is Survivor Champions Club. 20 winners. Winner gets to share the title of Best Survivor of All Time with Sandra.
Here are my reasons why Survivor can be so addicting.
1. The Diverse Cast. The diverse cast means that there always going to be players that you can identify with. In terms of race, religion, hometown, occupation....etc. I've always found it funny how I will hate a certain player, but you go on a certain message board and other people love that guy. Perfect example: Most of you guys couldn't stand Rodney from last season, but I'm sure there are some ******bag types from Boston or New Jersey that love Rodney.
2. The Challenges. The reward and the immunity challenges are unbelievable and taps into the sports fan that likes to see how normal people compete in the jungle
3. Probst. - By Far the best reality show host. I can't think of anyone that is remotely close
4. The imagery. The Shots of the wild animals. The shots of snakes and lizards when someone is about to be devious. The amazing views they show you of the island and where the game is being played. The editing is unbelievable.
5. The strategy. I think everyone wants to see how far people are willing to go for $1 million and if they would do the same thing.