For the past 23 years, at least one new season of Survivor has debuted on CBS annually. This year is no different with Survivor: 44, having begun on March 1. 44 seasons makes Survivor one of the longest running shows ever.
When Survivor debuted on May 31, 2000, it instantly hooked Americans nationwide. The show follows a simple premise: sixteen strangers are divided into two tribes and are stranded on an island to fend for themselves. Every couple days, there is a challenge where the loser has to vote one member of the tribe out of the game. At a certain point, tribes will be removed and the game becomes individual, where only one person is safe each week.
This continues until day 39 when there are two players left. Here the final tribal council takes place, where a jury of the people voted out decides who is the most deserving of the $1,000,000 prize. Although this formula has changed a little bit over the years as new twists are added to the game, overall, this premise has remained constant. Thanks to Survivor, a new genre of reality competition shows began to flourish, making way for shows like Big Brother, The Amazing Race, and The Challenge to find similar success.
Although the fanbase of the show has dwindled since its inception, many still remain, with over 4.75 million people tuning into the first episode of the new season. The new seasons keeps much of what got the show its initial following, keeping the same core premise as it has from the start, with only small tweaks. This keeps the people who have watched year after year, season after season, still watching. With its long history, people have a lot of memories about the show when it first aired. Nate Schmerler ‘23 first watched the show when “[he] was 10,” and would “watch old seasons of the show” and “recordings of the newest episodes” with his father. Survivor brought families together in front of their TV screen twenty years ago and has continued this process for every year since.
Based on the first couple of episodes, this season is propped up to be a good one. Right off the bat, it starts off with a physically grueling challenge that caused one player to receive medical assistance after he was bleeding out of his head. That was not the only time medical assistance was called for in episode one. Three times throughout the episode, players required medical attention, with one player needing to be medically evacuated from the game.
The challenges thus far have required a balance of physical and mental strength. The strategy of the game has been up to pace with that of the past couple of seasons, as the players are all fans who are eager to play this game and make big moves. The first couple tribal councils have been on point this season, having crazy outcomes. The first tribal council is potentially the best first tribal council in Survivor’s long history. Survivor: 44 is set to be one of the best in recent years.
Just like everything though, Survivor still has its pitfalls. The biggest of which is the location. In the past, the show would change location almost every season; however, recently they seem to have abandoned that idea. Since season thirty-three, Survivor has been played in Fiji and only Fiji. After COVID, the show was forced to limit its usual thirty-nine day season, turning to a twenty-six day season. Despite them being able to return to the normal schedule, they have not, and the game feels really rushed.
The new season also falls victim to new ideas for production, that everyone watches for strictly the gameplay. They have begun to barely mention the survival aspect of the game, despite the fact that the show’s entire premise is based around it. This idea causes them to try and incorporate a large number of new twists, so much so that they shove it down the viewers throat. These twists can make the game completely unfair for many.
Survivor broke the reality television world when it debuted, creating a whole new genre. Twenty years later, they are still producing great TV, that despite its flaws, is 100% worth the watch.
