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.

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). 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

Australian Survivor contestants (back row - standing, left to right) David Haas, Jeff Brown, Sylvan Dorney, Jane Dalton, Sophie Woods, Naomi Knight, Lucinda Allen-Rhodes, Joel Betts, Lance Brooks, Deborah Peart, Rob Dickson, Tim Duggan (front row - crouching, left to right) Katie Gold, Caren Shaw, Sciona Brown, Craig Abbott in front of the bus that brought them to Whaler's Way.

[edit] The Game

[edit] Voting history

[edit] Elimination Notes

• Lucinda- Kadina lost Immunity and the group thought Lucinda wasn't valuable to her tribe. Knowing that she was the one going home, Lucinda had voted for herself, thus sending her home (8-0).

• Tim- Before going to Tribal, it appeared Sylvan or Tim were going home, due to the lack of performance they showed in the two challenges in which they lost. Tim tried to convince the alliance of Craig, Naomi, and Caren that he was loyal enough to stay, and should get rid of Sylvan. But they decided to go with the original plan and vote out Tim (5-2).

• David- The losing streak of Kadina continued, and every one had the feeling of just going home. Sylvan had done better at the challenges and the group decided to keep him. Caren had been snappy at David when not pulling his weight, he got Deborah to vote with him against Caren, and asked Sylvan and Craig to vote with him, but Craig could not betray his alliance, and Sylvan did not want to make himself more vulnerable. At Tribal, David was voted out, and Deborah became the next vulnerable person (4-2).

• Jeff- Tipara lost their first challenge, which shocked the tribe and made them unprepared for what was ever to happen at Tribal Council. Katie had gotten Rob in an alliance with her and told him and Joel the idea of sending Jeff home. Joel had felt betrayed, but still voted against Jeff at Tribal, thus sending him home (7-1).

• Deborah- Kadina lost their fourth Immunity, and Deborah was the most vulnerable person in the tribe, and she was voted out at Tribal (4-1).

• Sylvan- Sylvan was not in any alliance, but tried to convince Naomi and Caren that Craig would be a huge threat in the merge, and should betray him. But they decided to stick with getting the most vulnerable one out, which was Sylvan (3-1).

• Caren- The merge had arrived, and the Tipara tribe decided to stick together, and pick off the Kadina tribe. Their first choice was to vote out Craig, but he had won immunity. Caren was their alternate pick, and sent her home (7-3).

• Naomi- Craig had won immunity again, and Tipara had a difficult decision to get rid of Naomi, even though some of the Tipara members did not get along, Naomi was voted out of the game, making herself the first juror, and Craig the last Kadina standing (7-2).

• Craig- Craig had won reward, but not 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 Lance. Having known he was going home, Sciona had voted for Lance, because she felt bad for Craig going home (6-2).

• Lance- Since there were no more Kadina members, it was time to send a Tipara member home since Jeff was voted out. 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 Rob, Sciona, Katie, Sophie and Jane. Lance had the majority and was voted out (3-2-1-1).

• Jane- Jane thought by using her sex-appeal would make the guys vote against Sciona, however Rob and Joel did not fall for it, and knew she was the next vulnerable person. Jane did not contribute as much as the other ladies did, and thus sending her home (5-1).

• Sophie- Sophie and Joel were the physical threats remaining, and it appeared it was one of them going home. Rob had to betray either Katie by voting out Sophie, or Joel. Rob decided to betray Katie and vote out her alliance partner (3-2).

• Katie- The mental breakdown of Katie, made the tribe want to leave the game. However, the producers threatened them that if they had quit, they would give the money to the previous person voted out (which was Sophie). They decided to stay, and vote out Katie, who they thought really should go home (3-1).

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

• Sciona- Sciona proved to be socially inept, but rode coat-tails the whole way through the game. She gained the votes of Katie and Sophie.

• Rob- Rob proved to play the game way better then Sciona, and earned the title of Sole Survivor by gaining the votes of Naomi, Craig, Lance, Jane, and Joel.

[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