Australian Survivor to return in 2017 as Ten hands show an immunity idol
Ten has given its pricey reboot of a local Survivor franchise an immunity idol, announcing the show will return for a second series in 2017.
The network took a massive gamble with the successful American reality show hoping it would be third time lucky for a localised version.
Earlier attempts by both Nine and Seven to give an Australian flavour to the show both failed to last more than a single season.
Ten worked with Endemol Shine and backed the show early on with a big promotional budget and also sinking a hefty amount into production to try and match the quality of the US version.
Relative success came early and Ten quickly extended the planned Sunday/Monday schedule to Tuesdays to capitalise on the audience interest.
The show was also put on a collision course with The Block on Nine, and while the renovation show has been dominant against Survivor, Ten believes it has built a strong platform for next year.
Australian Survivor launched with a suite of major sponsors – Hungry Jacks, Medibank’s AHM Health Insurance and Holden – with Hungry Jacks making the show a core part of its in-store experience during the series and enjoying product placement within an episode.
According to Ten the first 23 episodes have lifted its timeslot audience by 28% in 25-to-54s and 24% in total people compared to the same nights in 2015, while the show has averaged an audience across the five metro markets of 757,000 viewers.
It has also been hailed a success on Ten’s catchup service Tenplay, with 10.83m segment views.
The decision to announce the second series is a clear signal of Ten’s intent to have a strong 7.30pm slot across the week next year as noted by CEO Paul Anderson during Ten’s result’s briefing last week.
“We are continuing to invest in differentiated content in a disciplined manner,” Anderson said during an analysts call.
“One of the key aims of that investment is to create year-round consistency in our multi-night franchises in the critical 7.30pm time slot – something Ten has never achieved.”
Ten’s chief content officer, Beverley McGarvey, said the show had managed to win over critics.
“We are pleased that audiences have embraced Australian Survivor and that the local format has impressed new viewers as well as winning over critics and super fans,” McGarvey said.
“Our contestants played the game with a genuinely Aussie twist and Jonathan LaPaglia has been a wonderful host and really made his mark navigating the intense Tribal Councils.”
The show is entering its final week with five contestands remaining and a blockbuster final Tribal Council planned for Tuesday night.
The network has also opened auditions for 2017 after more than 15,000 people applied to take part in the first series.
hOW IS THE FINAL WORKED OUT ??
THE US VERSION HAS A FINAL TWO, BUT SOME THINK ITS A FINAL 3 IN AUSTRALIA ????
WHICH IS IT
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Some of the challenges need to change to reflect “Survivor” skills, such as ‘making fire’, jungle orienteering (treasure map), hunting/fishing, paintball battle last man standing, rescue stunts like make a kite, etc. The show also needs to give opportunities for virtues of the Aussie character to shine through, through noble gestures and personal sacrifices (sharing rewards etc). Audiences want to see and admire people of virtue struggle against adversity while maintaing their dignity, rather than snakes lying and cheating their way to $500,000. Just an idea.
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Michael, you are kidding yourself. Survivor is completely boring when people all play the way you’ve suggested. Look at Lee & El this season as a prime example. My suggestions for the producers a) Few more Survivor fans instead of people that have never watched the game before b) Not too many twists for the sake of twists c) Final 3 instead of 2 prevents one-sided final votes
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I have really enjoyed the series. Mostly because I start yelling at the TV when people are making bad voting decisions. Like last night. What was Flick thinking? I thought she wanted to get final 2?
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How about each contestant starts of in the jungle/bush/island on their own with the bare essentails and only meet up challenges to win food and utensils, challanges to win immunity, challanges to pick other contestant for their resources etc and to build up their tribe/resourses/supplies/skills etc. Then we have a game. Need more mental/thinking challanges.
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A great show and survivor series should have to look to other place as like Samoa to continue the show in the future.,,The Samoan environment is too tough because of it everyday temperature always +30 degree Celcius. Very hot and great volcanic rocks on the coastal area. There are some places with densely forests with and nice sandy beaches..as well as some great water falls with tough swampy area like Lake Lanotoo in the highland area in Afiamalu in te island of Upolu.,,
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