Report: Survivor to return after 20 years

[Brekkie]

So fresh off the new about the potential Big Brother revival another reality TV mega franchise, which didn't get past it's second series here, is reportedly set for a revival with the BBC in discussions to resurrect Survivor.

It never took off here mainly because they killed the series by trying to mimick the Big Brother scheduling with the first series, something which just didn't work with the format.   Viewers didn't particularly care whether the people they were watching were competing for £1m or £70k either - and I suspect any revival would be closer to the latter.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/tv/18317934/sur...show-back/


Of course this isn't the first time it's been rumoured for a return and more often or not it turns out to be a similar but different show, like The Island and The Bridge for C4.  Would be interesting though to see a UK version once again though.   I'm not a fan of the US version at all but the Australian version has been pretty decent (although the latest season somewhat of a dud), as is the South African version, both of which are on Prime.    Rather oddly the US version has never actually aired in the UK and AFAIK still isn't available via any of the streamers.

[JAS84]

That's weird. You think they'd have put Survivor USA on ITV2 back when they were making the UK version.

I'm not surprised that this revival will apparently be on the BBC instead of ITV. Isn't I'm A Celebrity pretty much to blame for Survivor's demise, the same way that X Factor replaced Pop Idol? It definitely doesn't make a lot of sense for the two to co-exist on the same channel.

[Whataday]

Isn't I'm A Celebrity pretty much to blame for Survivor's demise, the same way that X Factor replaced Pop Idol? It definitely doesn't make a lot of sense for the two to co-exist on the same channel.

No, at the time it was more due to the fact that it wasn't generating anywhere near the same amount of buzz as Big Brother, even though the ratings were higher.

I remember even during the first series The Big Breakfast mocking Survivor for no one talking about it (even though Planet 24 produced both shows).

[Brekkie]

Although I'm a Celeb did come along within weeks of the end of the second series and the rest is history.

Survivor itself probably could have been reformatted into a two week live celebrity version if they'd been the will to do so but there clearly wasn't. And for all the legal issues I'm a Celebrity is quite a different format to Survivor - and certainly what it is now. More about physicality, puzzle solving and strategy than challenges about facing fears.

[Whataday]

Although I'm a Celeb did come along within weeks of the end of the second series and the rest is history.

Survivor itself probably could have been reformatted into a two week live celebrity version if they'd been the will to do so but there clearly wasn't.  And for all the legal issues I'm a Celebrity is quite a different format to Survivor - and certainly what it is now.  More about physicality, puzzle solving and strategy than challenges about facing fears.

The producers of Survivor also tried to sue Endemol alleging Big Brother ripped off their format.  It went on for years and quite rightly went in Endemol's favour.

[XIII]

Planet 24 produced the UK version but I assume ITV Studios who eventually absorbed them no longer has the UK rights and it's with MGM Television which acquired Mark Burnett Productions a few years back. The Australian version is co-produced by Endemol Shine Australia so possibly one of the Banijay companies might end up co-producing the rumoured UK revival.

[tellyblues]

I can understand why broadcasters would want Survivor as it provides content but it feels too much of a step backwards.

[Brekkie]

Format wise things do seem to have dried up a bit - The Masked Singer perhaps the last major format to spread around the world. Part of the problem now too is streamers picking up worldwide rights - Netflix may have been a good fit for The Circle but along with the UK version it's been limited to four versions (US, France, Brazil, UK) - whilst had they gone down the country by country route I've no doubt it would have had at least one series in dozens of countries.

[gottago]

Banijay owns the format internationally as of five years ago (except maybe in the States).

[Whataday]

Planet 24 produced the UK version but I assume ITV Studios who eventually absorbed them no longer has the UK rights and it's with MGM Television which acquired Mark Burnett Productions a few years back. The Australian version is co-produced by Endemol Shine Australia so possibly one of the Banijay companies might end up co-producing the rumoured UK revival.

Planet 24 developed the Survivor format in the first place but when Planet was sold to Carlton, the rights were spun off to a separate company, Castaway Productions. That's probably how Planet ended up producing it for ITV.

[KPaKelpie39]

Remember bits of UK one when I was young in early 2000s but have watched all the Aussie Survivor series and love it. Right balance of it being a 'game show' with reality elements. Since then tried to watch US one but found the US Survivor a bit too... American, way too faux-dramatic when tried to watch. Even though the Survivor die-hards say the US host is the best of the best, I think Jonathan La Paglia is outstanding on the Aussie one. Love the music they use everything. Probably only negative is they drag out out to 25-26 episodes over 50ish days.


It might work in the UK as it got crowded out at the time as mentioned, It isn't something that was on for say 10-12 years and revived a few years later. It is almost a generation later so complete reset to the audience here.

[Inspector Sands]

Planet 24 developed the Survivor format in the first place

Richard Osman claims he was the person responsible for coming up with Survivor when he was at Planet 24, but he official credit of creator goes to Charlie Parsons and he's never seen a penny from it

[Brekkie]

Planet 24 developed the Survivor format in the first place

Richard Osman claims he was the person responsible for coming up with Survivor when he was at Planet 24, but he official credit of creator goes to Charlie Parsons and he's never seen a penny from it

Doesn't seem the sort of claim somebody would let go.