Australian Survivor
| Australian Survivor | |
|---|---|
| Presented by | |
| No. of episodes | 13 |
| No. of days | 39 |
| No. of castaways | 16 |
| Production | |
| Location(s) |
Whaler's Way, Port Lincoln, Eyre Peninsula, South Australia |
| Filming dates | circa 1 November 2001 – 2001-12-24 |
| Broadcast | |
| Original run |
13 February 2002 – 15 May 2002 (Special 29 May 2002) |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by |
Survivor: Africa (on Nine Network) |
| Followed by |
Survivor: Thailand (on Nine Network), Celebrity Survivor (on the Seven Network) |
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 13 February - 15 May 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.
Contestants
| Contestant | Original Tribe | Merged Tribe | Finish | Total Votes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lucinda Allen-Rhodes 43 |
Day 3 |
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| Tim Dugan 51 |
Day 6 |
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| David Haas 34 |
Day 9 |
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| Jeff Brown 52 |
Day 12 |
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| Deborah Peart 26 |
Day 15 |
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| Sylvan Dorney 25 |
Day 18 |
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| Caren Shaw 28 |
Day 21 |
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| Naomi Knight 22 |
1st Jury Member Day 24 |
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| Craig Abbot 27 |
2nd Jury Member Day 27 |
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| Lance Brooks 39 |
3rd Jury Member Day 30 |
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| Jane Dalton 18 |
4th Jury Member Day 33 |
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| Sophie Woods 30 |
5th Jury Member Day 35 |
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| Katie Gold 24 |
6th Jury Member Day 37 |
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| Joel Betts 22 |
7th Jury Member Day 38 |
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| Sciona Browne 49 |
Day 39 |
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| Robert "Rob" Dickson† 37 |
Day 39 |
The game
| Episode title | Challenges[1] | Eliminated | Vote | Finish | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reward | Immunity | ||||
| "Whaler's Way" | 1st Voted Out Day 3 | ||||
| "Violent Weather and Violent People" | 2nd Voted Out Day 6 | ||||
| "The Losing Streak" | 3rd Voted Out Day 9 | ||||
| "The Struggle of Both Tribes" | 4th Voted Out Day 12 | ||||
| "It's Just Too Hard!" | 5th Voted Out Day 15 | ||||
| "This Game is Way Different Then it Looks" | 6th Voted Out Day 18 | ||||
| "It's Time to Merge" | 7th Voted Out Day 21 | ||||
| "Pick Off" | [Craig] |
8th Voted Out Day 24 | |||
| "I Just Feel So Bad " | [Everyone] |
9th Voted Out Day 27 | |||
| "He's a Threat, She's A Threat, We're all Threats!" | 10th Voted Out Day 30 | ||||
| "Cockiness Comes to an End" | 11th Voted Out Day 33 | ||||
| "Who's the Odd Man Out?" | [Everyone] |
12th Voted Out Day 35 | |||
| "Finale/Reunion Special" | [Everyone] |
13th Voted Out Day 37 | |||
| None | 14th Voted Out Day 38 | ||||
| Jury Vote | Runner-Up | ||||
| Sole Survivor | |||||
Tipara felt Kadina lost due to bad luck, and shared their reward.
| Episode | |
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| Voter | 8-0 |
4-1-1-1 |
5-1 |
5-3 |
3-2 |
3-1 |
7-2-1 |
7-1-1 |
7-1 |
5-1-1 |
3-3 |
2-2 |
3-2 |
3-1 |
1 |
2-5 |
5-2 |
| Rob | |||||||||||||||||
| Sciona | |||||||||||||||||
| Joel | |||||||||||||||||
| Katie | |||||||||||||||||
| Sophie | |||||||||||||||||
| Jane | |||||||||||||||||
| Lance | |||||||||||||||||
| Craig | |||||||||||||||||
| Naomi | |||||||||||||||||
| Caren | |||||||||||||||||
| Sylvan | |||||||||||||||||
| Deborah | |||||||||||||||||
| Jeff | |||||||||||||||||
| David | |||||||||||||||||
| Tim | |||||||||||||||||
| Lucinda | |||||||||||||||||
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 (which, it has been noted, is against the rules of the American series). (8-0)
- Tim - Kadina were unsure of how to approach this tribal council after a unanimous and simple first tribal council. The vote was not discussed. Caren, Deborah, Naomi, and Sylvan felt Tim was the weakest link and he was the next to go. Craig voted for David, David voted for Caren, Tim voted for Deborah,(4-1-1-1) After tribal council, David criticised his tribe for voting out a strong tribe member and not putting the tribe before personal agendas.
- 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 asked Deborah if she would vote with him as he believed they were the next to be voted out. Deborah did not want to make herself more vulnerable and told the rest of the tribe. At Tribal Council, everyone voted against David. David voted for Craig. (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 an alliance with Rob, 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. Debroah and Sylvan voted for Caren. (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 off the Kadina members. Their original choice was to vote out Craig, but he won immunity. Caren the, alternate pick, was sent home. (7-2-1)
- 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 Rob. However Tipara held and voted Craig out. (7-1)
- 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, so everyone voted for Lance except Joel who voted for Jane . (5-1-1)
- Jane - Jane, Katie, and Sophie voted for Joel while Joel, Rob, and Sciona voted for Jane. This caused a tie. In the revote Katie and Sophie voted for Joel again, and Rob and Sciona voted for Jane again. Jane had 4 previous votes cast against her while Joel had none. The four previous votes cast 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 Rob anymore and tried to get rid of him. However, Joel and Sciona stuck to Rob's side and Sophie was voted out. (3-2)
- Katie - Katie had a mental breakdown after Sophie was eliminated. This caused Joel, Rob, and Sciona to consider quitting the game. However, the producers threatened 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 - 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 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 coat-tails, and apologized far too much. Her two votes came from Katie, because she was more straight forward with her than Rob (who she also had an alliance with), and Craig.
- Rob - Rob 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; Sophie; 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 died at age 45 after the show of a car accident in South Africa.
Challenges
- Epiosde 1 Reward Challenge - On Behalf of the Tipara tribe Jane had to call what the coin would land on. Kadina won.
- Episode 1 Immunity Challenge - Both tribes get two logs out of the pond bring them up the hill and use them as a ladder to get to the top of a platform. At the top of the platform is torch, one person lights it and then lights some seals. The tribe throws the seals until they light a fuse above their Bon fire.
- Episode 1 Immunity Challenge - Each tribe had to listen to a bunch of information from a book and answer questions about what they heard. Tipara won.
- Episode 2 Reward Challenge - Both tribes dig of a chest under a flag and pull it up some tracks. Kadina won. Sophie sat out for Tipara.
- Episode 2 Immunity challenge - Both tribes stand on circle divided into 14 wedges, one person from the opposite tribe pulls out a wedge each time the color of the wedge that is removed is called. Each time a wedge is taken away the person who is on the wedge must move to another one. The first person who falls of the wedge loses immunity for their tribe. Tipara won when David touched the ground. Jeff sat out for Tipara.
- Episode 3 Reward Challenge - Each tribe unties several ropes inside a circle, but nobody can be inside the circle. When all the ropes are untied the tribes tie them together to make one large rope and use it to pull their boat out in the water and around a buoy and then come back and get their boat in the circle. Kadina won. The reward was a hammock, two lanterns and a pan.
- Episode 3 Immunity Challenge - Both tribes cut through logs using an ax. Each person can hit the log once and the tribe takes turns hitting it. When they break the log the bring a crow's nest down in the crows nest is a ringer they use the ringer to ring a triangle to win immunity. Tipara won. Jane and Jeff sat out for Tipara.
- Episode 4 Reward Challenge - Each tribe swims out to pontoon and pulls up a treasure chest with a rope nag gets their chest back to the platform and finds the correct key to open with. Tipara won the challenge and the reward was chocolate.
- Episode 4 Immunity challenge - Both tribes drive a car through several gates, a person from the opposite tribe drives the car blindfolded the rest of the tribe tells that person where to drive to get through the gate, Kadina choose Jane to drive their car, Tipara choose Caren to drive thir car. If the tribe doesn't make it through the gate they must put a flag on the windshield wipers before trying again. The first tribe to go through all the gates wins immunity. Kadina won and also one person from their tribe won a car. Sylvan drew the correct key to the car and won.
- Episode 5 Reward challenge - The reward is lobster And a pot to cook it in, first the tribes must swim to a buoy and get the pot at the tribe flag and go to the markers to get the lobster and the lobster the trap.Then the tribes race back to the tribe platform The first tribe to get the lobster out of the pot and into the trap wins the reward. Kadina won and also got to keep the trap to catch more lobsters with.
- Episode 5 Immunity challenge - The challenge is an obstacle course and the tribes must jump, run, climb and gp under things. At the end of the course the tribes must unfold a sail to win immunity. Tipara won. Joel and Jane sat out for Tipira.
- Episode 6 Reward challenge - Both tribes roll a barrel down a hill and put a flag in it and fill the barrel with sandUsing a nails and hammer the tribes put the lid on the barrell and then roll it back up the hill to win. Tipara won and the reward was phone calls from home. Katie, Lance and Sciona sat out for Tipira.
- Episode 6 Immunity challenge - One person from each tribe is tied to a rope - Sylvan for Kadina and Joel for Tipara - each personmust stretch to reach poles in the sand and get them out of the ground. The person to get all their tribes poles out of the ground wins immunity. Joel won immunity for Tipara.
- Epiosde 7 immunity challenge - The individual immunity challenge has 4 stages, in stage 1 all ten survivors solve a puzzle to make a perfect square and then get a rope. The last three to finish are out, Caren, Namoi and Sciona were last were eliminated. In stage 2 the survivors use the ropes to pull a shovel out of the ground. Lance and Jane couldn't get shovel out and were eliminated. In stage 3 the survivors use the shovel to dig a wooden box, Katie and Joel were the last to finish and were eliminated leaving Craig, Rob and Sophie. In stage 4 the last three open their wooden box inside is compass giving them directions to the location of a flare which they use to light a torch to win. Craig lit the torch first and won immunity.
- Episode 8 Reward challenge - All the survivors make up a story the rest of thentribe guesses if it is true or false. the person who has the most people who believe their story wins reward. Namoi won the challenge and had 7 people believing her story beating Joel and Sciona who had 5. the reward was a visit to a cottage. Namoi invited Craig on the reward.
- Episode 8 Immunity challenge - Each survivor holds a rod over fire for as longs as possible, if the rod lights on fire or they move the rod away from the fire they are out. Craig won immunity again beating Rob after 1 hour, 3 min.
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.
- 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 4WD, crab pots, pizza and fishing gear.
- The Survivor Intro was shown at the beginning of each episode. The order that the contestants appear in is :
- Sophie
- Sylvan
- Debroah
- Jeff
- Sciona
- Tim
- Katie
- Joel
- Lucindia
- David
- Caren
- Craig
- Naomi
- Lance
- Jane
- Rob
- 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.
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 3 May 2001 to 10 May 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 Ayers Rock) in the Northern Territory and Broome in Western Australia.
- Castaway Television were behind Australian Survivor.
- One of the contestants, Lance Brooks, started the Communities For Communities charity after he left the show.
- 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.
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 (possibly due to the popularity of another reality TV show, The Mole, which aired on Channel Seven an hour earlier at 7:30pm for all but four weeks of the Australian Survivor run). 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.
See also
References
- ↑ Bindley, David (20 March 2010). "Survivor: The Complete Challenge Guide (1st ed.)" (PDF). Retrieved 16 December 2010.