World’s longest-running reality show reaches 47th series – but the UK hates it

Since Candid Camera heralded the dawn of reality TV in 1948, the genre has grown into a billion-dollar industry — and Survivor has come out on top.

We’ve seen an endless amount of programmes that would fall into the category. There are dating shows which have included everything from people trying to find love in the nude to singletons marrying strangers.

The competition sector has seen sewing, cooking, and drag queen artistry all getting their moment, and TV bosses have even commissioned series just documenting the everyday lives of ‘ordinary’ people. While many have stuck around nobody has done it quite to the level of Survivor. The wilderness-themed competition has reached its 47th series in the USA.

While you may have thought ITV were extra with their winter Love Island and summer original, American Survivor has been pulling off the single-year double hitter since launching in 2000.

What is Survivor?

The format originally came from the Swedish television series Expedition Robinson (a reference to the adventure novel Robinson Crusoe), which began airing in 1997 and saw a bunch of strangers placed in an isolated location.

The contestants compete in tough physical and psychological challenges and must themselves with food, fire, and shelter.

Although they work in tribes, and alliances quickly form, as the days progress, people are eliminated from the competition in vote-offs. Eventually, it is whittled to just one person – the Sole Survivor – who takes the cash prize of $1,000,000.

Survivor has been recognised with 63 Emmy Award nominations (winning two) and consistently brings in the largest audience for a reality show. It’s provided viewers with many watercooler moments, starting Sue Hawk’s scathing speech in season one.

She told fellow contestant Kelly Wiglesworth: ‘If I were to ever pass you in life and you were laying there, dying of thirst, I would not give you a drink of water. I would let the vultures take you.’

While watching the events unfold, host Jeff Probst recalls thinking to himself: ‘I knew we had just filmed a hit.’

Survivor’s cultural impact

The impact of Survivor is far-reaching, without it, writer Suzanne Collins would never have been inspired to pen The Hunger Games. In this parallel universe, we wouldn’t have witnessed Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen shouting ‘I volunteer as tribute’ or rocking a Dutch braid – now that’s a sad thought.

It’s not just America that has fallen in love with the concept – 50 versions of the programme have been commissioned around the world to date, including in Russia, Greece, and Australia.

British creator Charlie Parsons explained why he believed it’s been such a hit: ‘Ordinary people’s stories are interesting. How they cope with the situations they find themselves in is interesting. Our big thing about Survivor was that it was almost like a sport.

‘The show is extremely careful about its contestants, all of whom are heroes. It’s not exploitative and not watching and sneering,’ he added to Variety.

It may have found its way into many countries’ TV schedules and stayed firmly there, but in the UK, it has struggled to find its audience.

What went wrong with Survivor in the UK?

It first appeared on UK screens in 2001, airing on ITV for two seasons, and then it disappeared for over two decades before its heavily promoted return on BBC.

Presented by Joel Dommett it was marketed as the next big entertainment show, and was given a primetime Saturday night slot straight after the broadcaster’s beloved Strictly Come Dancing.

It reportedly cost the broadcaster £30,000,000 to produce, but ironically, it may not survive longer than one series after attracting just 2.6 million viewers on average.

Although, the production team put out a casting call immediately after the finale won by Matthew Haywood, by the summer reports began to circulate that it was on the chopping block.

A source told the Daily Mail: ‘It was clear at the time it went out the show was not a hit. They threw everything at it, but although a lot had been changed, and many years had gone by since it was last on, it still did not work.’

However, Joel, 39, was still holding out hope it could get a second chance when speaking to Metro.co.uk earlier this year.

‘Fingers crossed… there’s a lot of stuff that we would do slightly differently,’ he optimistically said.

‘Like with every first series, it’s hard, so I think a second series would be amazing.

‘Everyone seems to really love it, so I’m excited that – hopefully – [we get to] do another one.’

With Survivor’s international counterparts continually being hailed as some of the best television there is, it was somewhat considered a guaranteed ratings winner, but it wasn’t to be.

Since its lukewarm launch, viewers have passionately shared their theories about why it failed to take off.

On one Reddit thread set up to discuss the show, Nomad_88 said: ‘I think they took the Survivor concept, but gave it too much of a UK reality show edit. It didn’t fully feel like survivor. I want the survivor music. Not cheesy pop music. That was the biggest and worst thing for me.’

‘The edit was bad,’ wrote an account called Deleted. Expanding on their point further, they explained that it felt like they were purposefully trying to mislead viewers so the final vote at the end of each episode would be a plot twist.

llcooldubs felt the casting left much to be desired, calling the players ‘average’ and so not providing enough excitement or jeopardy.

The Survivor series one is available to watch on BBC iPlayer

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