Survivor (TV series)

Survivor is a popular reality television program produced in many countries throughout the world. The show consists of contestants isolated in a remote location competing for a cash prize. The format was created by Swedish production company Strix. It is now considered to be the father of reality TV, because since its premiere reality TV has gained a nationwide popularity, and other reality TV shows similar to Survivor have appeared.

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). The show was a major hit in Sweden.

Related Topics:
Charlie Parsons - Bob Geldof - Planet 24 - Britain - United States - Expedition Robinson - Robinson Crusoe

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The initial series was a huge ratings success in the US in 2000 and, along with ABC's prime-time game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, sparked a reality-television revolution. Suddenly networks pushed sitcoms and conventional drama series to the back burner 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 US versions have attracted smaller but still substantial audiences. There have also been British and Australian versions of the show in 2002. Both were ratings flops, 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). A Japanese version was also produced for four installments which achieved some success. http://www.tbs.co.jp/survivor/ Broadcast rights for the American version have been sold to various broadcasters and is viewed in many countries around the world.

Related Topics:
2000 - ABC - Who Wants to Be a Millionaire - Reality-television - Sitcoms - Fox Network - British - Australian - 2002 - ITV

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