Yahoo News ‘Survivor’ Season 1: THR’s 2000 Review
On May 31, 2000, CBS unveiled Survivor, a reality competition series produced by Mark Burnett that would become a juggernaut, inspiring spinoffs and imitators over the ensuing decades. The Hollywood Reporter’s original review of its season 1 premiere is below:
The concept is insulting, the presentation is deceptive and the narration is laughingly overdramatic, and yet somehow, Survivor turns all of this into intriguing television that practically dares you to click the remote, knowing that you won’t.
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In the U.S. version of this British reality show, 16 people are divided into two teams and dropped off a couple hours’ swim from a remote island in the South China Sea. They are given a baffling array of supplies, including knives, fishing traps, cans of food, a map to potable water and even a team flag, but no matches or port-a-potties. Clearly, this is no three-hour tour.
At various points, island host Jeff Probst, who is amiable enough but no Mr. Roarke, gathers the teams for competition. In Wednesday’s opener, review copies of which were not provided to critics, the teams had to swim out to a raft and use the fire on it to light a succession of torches. The winning Pagong team got waterproof matches. The losing Tagi team got to meet at a hokey tribal council and send one of its members packing.
As a consolation prize, though, the remaining team members get fire. Fire represents life, Probst says, though not necessarily to the woman who was booted from the island. Her stumble contributed to the team’s loss in the contest and made her, according to one team member, the weak link. Ultimately, one survivor, chosen by those voted out earlier, will get $1 million.
Between National Geographic-style shots of fearsome snakes and armies of insects, producers try to convey the idea that the 16 contestants are stranded on some sort of Island of Death. The island does have its share of rats, true, but it also comes with 12 people on camera, 10 on audio and a battalion of producers, all shooting enough tape to build a fortress of cassettes.
A talented team of editors separates the emotional high points from the more mundane footage and weaves it into captivating television. The edited package makes it almost impossible not to form emotional attachments to teams and individual contestants, carefully chosen to represent a broad cross section.
In this show, a primitive Real World, it’s easy to forget the fact that we are basically voyeurs finding entertainment in the manipulated anguish of others and fixating on the contest itself and who will be the last one left. Its success in getting us hooked from the start makes it likely that, in the end, this series will emerge as the real survivor. — Barry Garron, originally published on June 2, 2000.
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