Survivor (franchise)

Survivor is a reality-based competition television show.

History
Survivor is derived from a 1997 Swedish television series called Expedition Robinson. Following its success, in 2000, Mark Burnett collaborated with Charlie Parsons (who developed Expedition Robinson) to create the U.S. version, which they entitled Survivor. Initially, Burnett looked for a television network who would buy the concept, but was unsuccessful, until CBS accepted the offer.

The American series debuted in May 31, 2000, which amassed huge international success, which prompted Burnett and Parsons to produce more seasons after it.

Following the American franchise, other countries have produced their own versions of the series. The rights to these franchises are bought from Parsons' Castaway Television Productions.

In, the movie, Lord of the Flies was said to be an inspiration of the series.

The Survivor series is considered to be the pioneer of the Reality Television genre, spawning several reality shows with completely different premises, either competition-based, or chronicling a famous person's daily life.

Premise
The show's premise is to subject 16-20 strangers to a remote location, stripped away of most comforts in life such as food and technology. These contestants would be undergo challenges and physical and mental fatigue for 39 days. Divided in to teams called "tribes", the castaways must construct a new world while battling the elements and one another. Every few nights, they would go to Tribal Council and must vote one of their own off the island. At a certain point, what remains from the original tribes would merge into one final tribe where they will compete for a seat at the Final Tribal Council, where the most recently eliminated castaways will ultimately decide which of the final few would earn the title of Sole Survivor and its accompanying $1,000,000 prize.

Motto
The series' motto, Outwit, Outplay, Outlast, is the three key factors to ensure victory in the game. "Outwit" is the strategic factor, where a contestant must cleverly make it through the game as unscathed as possible. To "Outplay" is to consider the other contestants and how to assimilate and/or manipulate them. "Outlast" stands for surviving as many days as possible.

Format
To know about Survivor's rules, refer to the Survivor Rulebook page.

Sixteen to twenty strangers will be marooned in an unforgiving territory where they will be divided into teams called "tribes". According to Jeff Probst, the standard 16-castaway format is implemented to make the viewers get to know each contestant more; but in seasons with more than 16 contestants, Probst explained that the expanded cast is to have "wiggle room" in case of unprecedented events such as medical evacuations and voluntary exits.

Given a pre-determined amount of tools and supplies, the tribes would then proceed to their camps, which they will inhabit on for the next 39 days. These tools are usually limited to a machete, a cooking pot and water canteens. In some seasons, contestants are given limited food supplies such as rice and fruits. Otherwise, they have to rely on available flora and fauna for nourishment.

These tribes are also required to compete in competitions called "challenges", where they have to vie for either creature comforts such as additional supplies, food or love from home (Reward Challenges) or the right to stay for three more days (Immunity Challenges). The tribe that loses at the Immunity Challenge must go to an elimination ceremony called Tribal Council where their actions will put into account. The tribe votes, and whoever receives the plurality of the votes (majority vote is not nessary) will be sent home. In, and , the person who gets voted out will be sent to  to win their way back into the game.

At a certain point, the tribes will be merged into one final tribe, where they will now compete as individuals unlike the tribal phase, where challenges are won by group effort. In the later seasons the merge also marks the start of the jury phase, where the people who gets eliminated will return to subsequent Tribal Councils to ultimately decide which among the final two/three wins the title of Sole Survivor and the million dollar prize that comes along with it at the Final Tribal Council.

Over the years, Survivor has introduced twists to the original format to make the game fresher and more interesting.

Success
Through Borneo until Tocantins and from Nicaragua to South Pacific, Survivor remained as one of the most watched television shows, breaking in to the Top 20 Most Watched shows of their respective television seasons. The season finale alone of Borneo, , ranked the series' highest number of viewers, with 51.69 million viewers. The change of time slot in  (from Thursdays to Wednesdays) did not seem to affect ratings.

Impact
Survivor's success are largely thought as the proponent of the Reality Television genre, spawning several other reality shows, competition-based or otherwise. On a similar note, Mark Burnett subsequently produced several other competition-based programs such as The Apprentice, Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, Combat Missions (which starred Survivor: Borneo and  contestant Rudy Boesch), The Voice, and among others.

Merchandise
In the United States version, other than DVDs and replica buffs, merchandise ranges from mugs, flash disks, keychains, computer games and shirts. Several of the US show's props, such as contestants' torches, Immunity Idols and challenge paraphernalia are auctioned off for charity.