This past year, Survivor ended its 48th season and 701th episode. I never believed Survivor would’ve made it this far when I first heard about the show over 25 years ago.
But when it aired on this date, May 31 in 2000, it became a cultural phenomenon. But was its success misunderstood? American TV has changed a lot over the years. Usually, the months between the end of May and the early parts of September were when networks aired reruns of popular shows as well as shows, programs and specials of which executives had little faith in. This was called a “burn off” when the networks were contractually obligated to broadcast a show.
The Drew Carey Show‘s ninth and final seasons was burned off showing two episodes a week during the summer of 2004. It’s no surprise it ended with a ranking at 150th averaging 3.1 million viewers. At its height a few years earlier, it was garnering more than five times that much. Then there was the infamous Family Dog episodes that came and went during the summer of 1993 more than six years after he had been a popular episode of the anthology show Amazing Stories. And then you have Poochinski in which Peter Boyle plays a cop who is killed in the line of duty and his soul is transferred to a talking bulldog.
Networks were desperate as they needed their advertising dollars. And also, some celebrities were making a lot of money for their shows. By 2000, each of the main cast of Friends was making $750,000 per episode. That’s $4.5 million an episode per 24 episodes a season totaling $108 million a season just on six cast salaries alone. Yes, NBC could asked a lot for advertising spots but networks needed a way to find cheaper shows.
In the Fall of 1999, ABC had a hit with Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. At this time, British TV producers Charles Parsons and Mark Burnett collaborated to form Survivor, based on the Swiss show Expedition Robinson. The idea was to put regular people on a tropical island somewhere and have them compete to see who would win the final prize of $1 million.
When I first heard this on Entertainment Tonight and saw all the contestants getting ready to board an airplane, I thought people would hate it. I was wrong. The show became so popular but as I started watching it, I realized how much I hated all the people. To me, it was nothing more than MTV’s The Real World set on an island. At the same time, CBS also premiered Big Brother that summer.
So naturally both shows were going to be a hit. A lot of people still had basic cable so this gave them something new to watch. I honestly don’t think if a show like this premiered on one of the major four networks today, it wouldn’t have survived past one season. TV is now bombarded with so much of this “Reality TV” shows it’s not even worth it to have cable/satellite TV anymore because it’s just a waste of money.
What’s crazy is that it almost all ended before it really began. By the summer of 2002, the popular of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire faded and it went into syndication. Survivor had also lost its luster. A much anticipated (and much overrated) Survivor: Australia premiered after the 2001 Super Bowl and we laughed at the seriousness as it had the contestants in a cargo aircraft, not talking.
Then the show pulled gimmicks to get viewers to tune in like making it seem a contestant is attacked by a crocodile. What really happened was contestant Michael Supkin had inhaled too much smoke while tending to a fire and passed out into the fire. I’m not doubting the severity of it all but it seemed a little off. Worse, Supkin would later be charged with possession of child porn.
Anyone who has any basic knowledge of filming and camera work knows it’s almost impossible to have some of this footage unless it’s planned. This became an early joke on Family Guy where Survivor is being held on the same soundstage as The Price is Right. The third season of Survivor set in Africa was broadcast beginning in July 2001 but found itself facing a lot of criticism. The novelty and gimmick of the show had worn out.
And 9/11 happened during the middle of the season’s broadcast. It was hard to ask people to tune in to see people who weren’t all that interesting compete in tasks. But it became apparent from then on out, most of the seasons were heavily criticized for their forgettable contestants and lackluster games. Even by the fifth season in the Fall of 2002, you could tell host Jeff Probst was growing tired with the contestants and their behaviors on screen.
It almost seemed like people were being selected because they fit a certain persona necessary for the shows. There always was a loudmouth dudebro or an older guy who might be bigoted. Then the women on the show acted nagging or antagonistic. You wouldn’t want to spend five minutes with these people so why spend an hour each week for months?
Even when he returned in Survivor: All-Stars, Richard Hatch’s walking around nude seemed like it was something he was told to do. I also don’t think his disgusting act of rubbing his genitalia on Sue Hawk during a challenge would’ve never been broadcast today. Also Hatch would’ve been thrown out anyway.
The incident soured many fans who saw the show more and more as tasteless exploitation. It was apparent Survivor was just making totally unlikeable people famous. Take for instant Johnny Fairplay, aka Jon Dalton, who worked out a way with a friend to make it appear his grandmother had died to garner sympathy. She hadn’t and the incident divided audiences also on what was fair game and was was crossing a line. But Fairplay got his comeuppance four years later when he was booed at a Fox Reality award show and for some crazy reason jumped on Danny Bonaduce who tossed him on the ground.
By by the winter of 2004 something worse was on the air than Survivor and that was The Apprentice. The show, also created by Burnett, helped create this myth about Donald Trump that has been proven time and time again to be false. But by then, most taste in reality TV was like watching a major car accident on the highway. You know it’s going to be a horrible sight, but you find yourself still watching.
If you thought they couldn’t get worse than Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire, then there was Joe Millionaire in 2003 where the women are just gold diggers. Finally, there was The Littlest Groom which was offensive in so many ways to little people and those with dwarfism. But we already had The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. It was getting harder to put the genie back in the botte.
Some pushback led to more lighter shows such as America’s Got Talent, American Idol and The Voice. But even there were questions early on about who was really winning on American Idol. Some people were debating if the call in votes were really being tallied. I know I watched a few shows and I saw some good singers railroaded by being grouped with people who obviously weren’t going to make it.
They even tried to bring Star Search back. But as that original show was on syndication, most of the contestants weren’t so hard pressed to make it big. The revival of 2003-2004 was CBS. And while it seemed to avoid the exploitation of people who couldn’t really perform that American Idol did, I think audiences were really wanting to see more “bad performances.”
But mainly the biggest problem was Survivor had already set the precedent it was a stepping stone to huge stardom. Colleen Haskell had become an audience favorite with the first season that she was soon cast in the movie The Animal and That 70’s Show. But fame is fleeting and even Haskell walked away to live a more private life now.
Ad that’s the way it should’ve been. Winners on The Price is Right, Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune got their 15 minutes of fame and then went into the ether. It’s no surprise that during this rise of reality TV, the producers of Jeopardy! dropped their five-game win limit, giving rise to Ken Jennings, who is now a game show host.
People tend to forget that in 2004, Jennifer Hudson placed seventh on American Idol. She would go on to be one of the few people in entertainment who are EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) winners. And Fantasia was the winner that year and she hasn’t had near the success. It’s obvious each season was to find a certain winner.
But with all the reality TV shows, it’s hard for people to really get interested in someone who stands out. As wrestling bigwigs finally dropped the facade and told us what we had thought, it was all for show, TV needed its next circus. And they had struck paydirt with Survivor.
Yet with all the reality TV shows and games shows flooding the market, comedies and dramas (which had always been the backbone) of the industry abandoned the major networks for premium cable and streaming service. When was the last good “watercooler” show that was on ABC, CBS, NBC or Fox?
If you can’t remember, there’s a reason. Actors, writers, producers and directors no longer had to be confined by Standards and Practices. Just as the end of the Hays Code in the 1960s led the film industry to change for the better, the same happened with TV. Even the Emmy Awards started allowing premium cable and streaming shows in the 1990s and now, they get the most recognition.
Even though things have changed on regular TV, there still seems to be a barrier. Forty years ago, ground-breaking shows like Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere and Miami Vice would now be on HBO, Showtime, Starz, Netflix, Hulu, etc. They would include content that would make NYPD Blue seem like Sesame Street. Also, shows like Cheers, Roseanne and Night Court would’ve been on the same platforms with edgier material. The cancelation of the Night Court revival shows that it’s hard to keep doing the same material for a different audience.
I don’t know of anyone who still watches Survivor. Ratings have obviously plummeted even though it still maintains about 4.75 million views with each episode. It gets twice that much on streaming on Paramount-Plus. But it’s no longer the juggernaut it was 25 years ago. Also, are they marathon watching it or just skipping through the parts of the episodes they don’t care for?
And with people now tuning into streaming services just for background noise all the time while they look or at their phones or play games, are they really watching it?
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 