Australian Survivor

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Australian Survivor was a television series based on the popular reality show Survivor. The series was filmed in November and December 2001 and aired weekly from February 13 - May 15, 2002 on Australia's Nine Network. It was set at Whaler's Way, an Eyre Peninsula coastal nature reserve in Port Lincoln, South Australia in the Great Australian Bight, where numerous ships had sunk off the coast in the past. This set up the nautical theme of the series.

[edit] Overview

The show's host was Lincoln Howes, a current affairs producer with the Australian version of 60 Minutes. The grand prize of $500,000 Australian dollars was won by Robert Dickson in a 5-2 vote by the jury. The runner-up was Sciona Browne.

The two initial tribes were named after shipwrecks and they were: Kadina (lime green buffs) and Tipara (blue buffs) and merged to become Aurora (grey flag). The merge name was not decided by the contestants - which was a first for the series. The contestants also did not receive new buffs at the merge.

While this was the only season of Australian Survivor produced, due to the series' middling ratings, in 2006 the competing Seven Network broadcast a spin-off, Celebrity Survivor, featuring Australian celebrities.

[edit] Contestants

[edit] The Game

^1  Tipara felt Kadina lost due to bad luck, and shared their reward.

[edit] Elimination Notes

• Lucinda - Lucinda struggled and gave up saying the game was too hard for her. She made Survivor history by being asked to be voted out (although it was only the first three days) and becoming the first person ever to vote for herself. (8-0)

• Tim - Kadina had mismatched discussions over who the weakest link was. Craig thought it was David, David thought it was Caren, and Tim though it was Deborah. However, Caren, Deborah, Naomi, and Sylvan felt elderly Tim was the weakest; and Tim was the next to go. (4-1-1-1)

• David - Kadina continued to win at reward challenges and lose at immunity challenges. This sent the camp into a low morale. Sylvan had redeemed himself at the challenges. David had voted for Craig. He asked Craig and Deborah if they would help him. Craig could not betray his alliance, and Deborah did not want to make herself more vulnerable. At Tribal Council, everyone voted against David. (5-1)

• Jeff - Tipara won their first reward challenge, but lost their first immunity challenge. The tribe immediately began listing their weakest members. Jane and Jeff came out on top. Katie formed and alliance with Robert, and she told him and Joel about the idea of sending elderly Jeff home. Joel felt betrayed, but still voted against Jeff at Tribal, thus sending him home. (5-3)

• Deborah - Deborah could not form any alliance quickly as she was targeted for being the weakest member left in the tribe and everybody voted for her except for Sylvan. (3-2)

• Sylvan - Sylvan was not in any alliance, but tried to convince Caren and Naomi that Craig would be a huge threat in the merge, and they should betray him. The women decided to stick with getting Sylvan out, while Sylvan changed his vote to Naomi. (3-1)

• Caren - Kadina and Tipara merged into Aurora. The Tipara members formed an alliance and decided to pick of the Kadina members. Their original choice was to vote out Craig, but he won immunity. Caren the, alternate pick, was sent home. (7-3)

• Naomi - After Craig won immunity again, the Tipara alliance targeted Naomi. However, they couldn't get along with each other. Despite their conflicts, Naomi was voted out next, and she became the first jury member. (7-1-1)

• Craig - Craig had failed to win either reward or immunity. He was the last Kadina member standing, but had a slight chance of staying, after he had tried to convince some members to vote out Robert. Having known he was going home, Joel and Robert had voted against Lance, because they felt bad for Craig going home. (5-2-1)

• Lance - After Craig's elimination, the Tiparans had to turn on each other. There was a long debate on who deserved to stay, and who were the least bit threatening. Joel had won immunity, which left Lance as the only tribe member outside the alliance made up of Jane, Joel, Katie, and Robert. Lance had the majority and was voted out. (4-1-1-1)

• Jane - Jane, Katie, and Sophie voted for Joel while Joel, Robert, and Sciona voted for Jane. This caused a tie. In the revote Katie and Sophie voted for Joel again, and Robert and Sciona voted for Jane again. Jane had 4 previous votes cast against her while Joel had none. The four previous votes casted against Jane sent her home. Original votes(3-3), Revote (2-2).

• Sophie - Katie, who was next to go, won immunity. Katie and Sophie decided they couldn't trust Robert anymore and tried to get rid of him. However, Joel and Sciona stuck to Robert's side and Sophie was voted out. (3-2)

• Katie - Katie had a mental breakdown after Sophie was eliminated. This caused Joel, Robert, and Sciona to consider quitting the game. However, the producers threatened them that if they would quit, they would give the money to Sophie. They then decided to stay and vote out Katie, who they thought really should go home. (3-1)

• Joel - Robert had won Final Immunity after Joel threw the final challenge in keeping with an agreement he had made earlier with Robert and Sciona. Robert picked Sciona over Joel, because he thought he had a better chance against her in the Final Tribal Council. (1-0)

• Sciona - Sciona was very underrated, and couldn't correctly specify why she had voted for fellow tribe members, such as Jane and Lance. She proved to be social and respectful, but rode some coat-tails, and apologized way too much. Her two votes came from Katie, because she was more straight forward with her then Robert (who she also had an alliance with) was, and Sophie, who gave her kudos for being the eldest of the females and making final two and playing the best game that she could.

• Robert - Robert was honest and prepared with his answers to the jury. Even though he broke a few alliances, he specified why (unlike Sciona). He received the winning amount of five votes from Naomi, being well-liked by her; Craig, who guaranteed to vote for him; Lance, mainly a vote against Sciona, but did respect his game; Jane, even though was criticized by her, he gained her vote due to Sciona making her frustrated; and Joel, who thought that he was a very brilliant player. He passed away at age 45 after the show of a car accident in South Africa.

[edit] Show Notes

• The show was broadcast by Channel Nine in the Wednesday 8:30 PM timeslot and was rated PG (Parental Guidance recommended). Australian Survivor was also screened in New Zealand, however, Survivor: Marquesas was also broadcast at the same time much to the annoyance of New Zealand Survivor fans. On the other hand, Survivor Marquesas was not shown in Australia.

• The theme of the show was shipwrecks and the theme song incorporated an Irish jig (in a nod to Australian history - First Fleet arriving etc.). The theme song and show's overall theme music were similar and the extended version of the main theme (the official theme song) was played during the closing credits of the live Finale and Reunion show.

• The tribes (before the merge) alternated on which days they could go search for food. On one day Tipara could go to the coast and fish while Kadina could only go to the windmill and pump water and on the next day, the tribes swapped. It was at the windmill, that Rob was approached by Katie to begin an alliance and where Joel felt betrayed when he was asked to vote off Jeff against the wishes of his fellow Tipara Innocents.

• Tribal Council was held aboard a purposely-built shipwreck.

• Challenges on Australian Survivor included woodchopping down a ship's mast, trying to stay balanced on a wobbly pontoon on a lake, retrieving a chest of chocolates from the sea, carrying heavy items either through the sea (such as a log) or on land, an obstacle course, trying to hold a pole over a fire with one hand, brain teasers, trivia quizzes, a human chess game, lighting fires and races along the beach. Some challenges were divided into parts (such as digging through sand and finding flares) where a contestant was eliminated in each round. Fire making, rolling a large and heavy barrel through a chicane and a giant slingshot constituted as other challenges.

• Original challenge ideas of Australian Survivor included testing Survivors' memory and estimation of measurements after days out in the wild; a horizontal bungee; building a ladder to the top of a mini lighthouse, and involving the use of cars in a challenge (rather than just have a car as a reward). Another original idea included all tribe members, bar one, to each stand on a block of wood. Each block was a wedge that formed a circle. When the host, Lincoln Howes, spun a wheel it would stop on a colour. The remaining tribe member (not on a wedge) would proceed to remove the wedge that corresponded to the colour and the point of it all was for the tribe to remain balancing and still standing no matter how many blocks were removed from under their feet. Kadina lost.

• Rewards included Tribal Immunity in the form of a bell, Individual Immunity in the form of a rope necklace with shark's teeth, ice cream and lollies, a Ford Escape 4WD, crab pots, pizza and fishing gear.

• The behind the scenes show aired a few weeks after the series ended and was titled ' Surviving Survivor '. In this special, details were revealed such as the final four wanting to quit the show due to the sudden and dramatic turn of events in the nature of the game concerning Katie's behaviour (her mental breakdown right before the F4 Tribal Council). The producers threatened to hand the prize money to the last eliminated contestant (Sophie) if the F4 decided to continue to defy them.

[edit] Production Notes

• The casting call for Australian survivors began when the advertising campaign was initiated on the night of the broadcast of the season finale of Survivor: The Australian Outback (U.S.) (circa May 3, 2001 to May 10, 2001).

• A British company own the rights to Survivor (via Charlie Parsons - the creator of the show) and the Nine Network's contract involving the rights to broadcast Survivor stated that Nine must produce their own local version, thus giving birth to Australian Survivor.

• Other locations scouted for Australian Survivor included Uluru (formerly Ayer's Rock) in the Northern Territory and Broome in Western Australia.

• Castaway Television were behind Australian Survivor.

• One of the contestants, Lance Brooks started a charity, Communities For Communities after he left the show. The charity is now one of the most prominent charities in Australia.

• Sponsors included Cadbury chocolates, IBM computers, Jetset travel agencies, Schweppes soft drink (as well as Solo, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Sunkist and 7UP), Fa deodorant for men, Lays potato crisps (including all other brands under the name such as Smith's, CC's, Twisties, Doritos and Burger Rings etc), Telstra, Ford Motor Company and Intel Pentium which were used in producing the show's graphics and were part of the computer prize package which Naomi won (see above). These products and businesses were involved in a large campaign involving various product placements in the show.

• The show was produced by Stephen Peters.

• The booted contestants featured on the Today show (an early morning breakfast news show) on the Nine Network on the Thursday immediately after the Wednesday night episode where they were featured being voted off Australian Survivor. These interviews were conducted by Richard Wilkins just before the 8:00 AM news. (This parallels the U.S. where evicted Survivor contestants are interviewed on CBS' The Early Show.)

• The three-hour Finale and Reunion show (as opposed to the hour long weekly episodes) was hosted by Eddie McGuire. Both were held at the Crown Casino in Melbourne in front of a live audience. This event had the Tribal Council shipwreck moved to the auditorium to be used as the set on stage.

[edit] Controversy & Criticisms

• The 'Survivor' title design in the official logo was taken from the UK version. The Middle East series also have used the UK Survivor title design, as well as Celebrity Survivor.

• Other foreign networks own the phrases 'Outwit Outplay Outlast' (U.S.) and 'Trust No One' (UK) therefore Australian Survivor was decided to have no slogan, which sparked criticism over the lack of originality (see above) and flavour to the show (see below).

• The contestants believed the prize money would be equal to that of the American version - $1,000,000 (one million dollars). However some were disappointed by the halving of the money for the Australian edition when it was announced at the beginning of the show.

• Producers were also criticised for giving the contestants too many supplies (see above) and the lack of diversity in the casting of the players.

• Producers came under fire in failing to ensure the first ever challenge would work. A sudden death trivia quiz was the replacement challenge the next day when strong winds blew out the fires that the tribes made to light a fuse that would determine the winner.

• Lucinda became the first person ever in the history of the show to vote for herself. (There is a rule enforced in all other versions of the show around the world that you cannot vote for yourself, which did not exist, or was relaxed, in Australia).

• Nine advertised pre-Australian Survivor that Survivor: Marquesas (U.S. Version) would air after the Australian franchise. Australian fans disappointed in the quality of the local version were outraged when Nine decided not to broadcast Marquesas. Survivor: Thailand was shown instead.

• In the week of the Easter non-ratings period, the show took a break in its schedule, which in turn prompted rumours that Australian Survivor had been axed.

• Although the show started off with satisfying ratings, it eventually declined to dismal ratings. This showed especially when Nine decided to air the special, Surviving Survivor, in a late-night timeslot a fortnight after the conclusion of the series.

• Compared to the American version, Australian Survivor was lacking in its production values, editing, location, casting and alterations to the Survivor format^{[citation needed]} (i.e. the producers decided to "play it safe" and didn't think of too many original ways of how to deviate from the original Survivor format) . Because of this, the show was not renewed for a second season (Nine resumed showing the American versions of Survivor after a lengthy break from the show in its schedule, but skipped season four - Marquesas).

[edit] See also

• Survivor U.S.
• Survivor U.K.
• Celebrity Survivor
• Survivor: The Australian Outback
• Treasure Island

[edit] External links

Australian Survivor archived website news articles

• B&T media magazine
• B&T media magazine
• Nine Network Australia

Australian Survivor archived news articles

• Australian Television Information Archive
• Inside Film magazine
• Australian Survivor at the Internet Movie Database
• Reality Blurred
• Reality News Online
• Sydney Morning Herald newspaper
• The Age newspaper
• The Age newspaper

Australian Survivor archived contestant articles

• Contestant Joel Betts' official site
• Contestant Lance Brooks' news
• Contestant Robert Dickson's contacts
• Contestant Robert Dickson's news
• Contestant Sylvan Dorney's book
• (Note: Contestant Katie Gold's official site now defunct)

Australian Survivor forum archives

• Aussie Phorums

Other

• Australian Survivor contestant quiz