25 Things You Might Not Know About ‘Survivor’

It’s been a full quarter of a century since Jeff Probst first uttered those four immortal words: “The tribe has spoken.” Now—having spawned 48 seasons and counting, made almost as many members of the public instant millionaires, and picked up no fewer than 69 Emmy Award nominations—CBS’s Survivor remains the daddy of competitive reality TV. From its Scandinavian origins and school requirements to theme tune disputes and troublemaking body piercings, here’s a look at 25 things that even the most committed Survivorheads might not know.

Its origins date back to 1988.

Survivor essentially started life back in 1988 as a segment on British youth show Network 7; two members of the public were sent to live on an island with TV presenter Annabel Croft and soap opera actor Simon O’Brien. 

Although the feature made little impression at the time, producer Charlie Parsons believed it had potential. He failed sell the idea in his homeland but managed to persuade Swedish network SVT to take the gamble. In 1997, Expedition Robinson aired the first of its ongoing 27 seasons, spearheading a franchise that would soon take over the globe. The first season of the U.S. version of the show debuted on May 31, 2000 and took place in Borneo.

Bob Geldof played a part in its inception.

Best known for fronting “I Don’t Like Mondays” hitmakers The Boomtown Rats, co-organizing the greatest musical spectacular of the ’80s (Live Aid), and being one of the most cantankerous men in pop, Bob Geldof wouldn’t appear to have much in common with a sun-kissed competitive reality TV show. But without the Irishman, Survivor might not exist: Castaway, the production company co-owned by Geldof, Parsons, and Waheed Alli, helped bring the ratings smash to the screen, and has subsequently made the famous grump a significant chunk of his net worth. In fact, he’d reportedly earned $50 million from the show as far back as 2001.

Phil Keoghan was nearly Survivor’s host.

After 48 seasons, it’s hard to imagine anyone other than Jeff Probst presiding over Survivor. But producers nearly went with his longtime friend—and a man who’d subsequently land his own exotic competitive reality show—Phil Keoghan.

Keoghan got down to the final two for Survivor’s inaugural 2000 season. But although he was disappointed at losing to Probst, Keoghan soon realized it was a blessing in disguise, and he became host of The Amazing Race the next year. “We were calling each other during that time [and asking,] ‘Have you heard anything?’ ” he told Us Weekly. “And we’re both at CBS, of course, and we are, I think, in the right place.”

All contestants must attend Survivor school.

Survivor doesn’t make contestants jump completely in at the deep end. Every single contestant, no matter how experienced in outdoor life they may be, must attend a pre-show school in which they’re taught the skills they’ll need to survive. This includes everything from making fires and building shelters to learning exactly which plants and foods on their respective islands are toxic. Of course, as producers acknowledged to People, “It’s one thing to be shown how to do it, it's another to then go do it yourself.”

Each contestant gets a financial reward.

Although only one contestant bags the million-dollar prize each season, each and every one of their tribesmates goes home financially better off than when they left. And we have Survivor: Pearl Islands’ third-place finisher-turned-professional wrestler Jonny Fairplay to thank for learning just how much. The two-time player claimed that even the first eliminee is given $3500 for their troubles, while a cool $40,000 awaits anyone who makes it to the jury stage. Throw in the fact that the runner-up is guaranteed $100,000 and it’s clear that Survivor is a money-spinner for all involved.

Rudy Boesch remains the show’s oldest contestant.

Rudy Boesch was 72 years old when he finished third in Survivor’s inaugural 2000 season—and the only contestant to have more years under their belt since is … Rudy Boesch. In 2004, the former NAVY Seal returned to the franchise for All-Stars having just celebrated his 75th birthday; on that season, however, he was voted out in week two. 

Although the show has welcomed several sixty-somethings (Tarzan Smith, Jimmy Johnson, B.B. Anderson) and 71-year-old Joe Del Campo, Boesch still holds the oldest contestant record. “The Survivor family has lost a legend,” Probst tweeted after the fan favorite’s death in 2019.  “Rudy is a true American hero.”

The show’s first winner was jailed for failing to report winnings.

Survivor’s inaugural winner found out the hard way that game show success doesn’t bring immunity from the IRS. In 2006, six years after his pioneering victory, Richard Hatch was given a four-year prison sentence after failing to report his $1 million winnings to the taxman [PDF]. 

Hatch was released after three years in 2009 but soon found himself back behind bars for a further nine months after once again running afoul of the IRS. He said that the latter had “very effectively exploited my notoriety to their ends and I have been powerless to stop them,” while also threatening to sue creator Mark Burnett and others at CBS for “years of torment and financial devastation.”

One contestant sued producers for “rigging” the show.

Contestant Stacey Stillman certainly didn’t take her elimination from the very first season of Survivor lying down. After returning home from Borneo, Stillman, an attorney, filed a lawsuit against the show’s producers on the grounds that they’d deliberately orchestrated her exit.

Stillman claimed that Dirk Been and Sean Kenniff had both been manipulated by Burnett to vote her off instead of 72-year-old Rudy Boesch in a bid to preserve some older representation. CBS called the claims “frivolous and groundless,” and fired back by counter suing for breach of contract.

The theme song inspired a lawsuit.

Survivor also found itself in legal hot water thanks to a composer who claimed his music had been sampled in its theme tune without permission. Paul Winter filed an $800,000 lawsuit against both Burnett and musician Russell Landau upon learning his 1987 Grammy-nominated LP Earthbeat had been used for the track, which is called “Ancient Voices.” 

Landau, who’d described his theme as “part of an ancient Russian folk song that I’ve totally bastardized,” had once belonged to Winter’s band, and he’d previously been given license to use Earthbeat’s outtakes. But Winter insisted his fellow composer had taken the invitation too far by using music from the album itself.  

A body piercing caused a whole lot of confusion.

During an all-important tribal immunity challenge in 2001’s third season, Survivor: Africa, Probst asked the four remaining contestants which female player didn’t have any body piercings. Kelly Goldsmith picked Kim Johnson, which was deemed to be correct at the time, giving the latter a vital point on her way to a place in the final three. 

But what the producers didn’t know was that Lex van den Berghe, who had chosen Lindsey Richter, was also right—and by denying him a point, they had potentially changed the course of the entire game. To make amends, CBS awarded a financial settlement to both van den Berghe and fourth-place contestant Tom Buchanan. 

The 9/11 attacks forced season 4 to change location.

Just eight weeks before shooting was due to start on the fourth season, provisionally titled Survivor: Jordan, America suffered its worst ever terrorist attack on home soil. Although Jordan wasn’t involved in the attacks, Mark Burnett instantly recognized that the show could no longer film in the Middle East.

The production crew was forced to leave all its equipment behind in Aqaba and headed to the South Pacific with the quest of finding a new location. They settled on the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia. Despite talks of an Arabia season in 2011, the show has yet to return to the region.

Winner Todd Herzog had to renounce his Canadian citizenship.

In 2007, Todd Herzog won 15th season Survivor: China and a cool million dollars to boot. But he had to pay a price himself to do so: The former flight attendant had to renounce his Canadian citizenship. Back in the early days of Survivor, only United States citizens were allowed to compete on the show, meaning that Herzog, a Canadian American, had to pledge his allegiance to Uncle Sam only. Thankfully, the rules were later altered, allowing Canadian Tom Laidlaw to appear in Island of the Idols in 2018 and then Erika Casupanan to become the Great White North’s first winner three years later. 

The show has been interrupted by cyclones twice.

Considering it’s entirely exposed to the elements, it’s a wonder that Survivor has only had to shut down production because of extreme weather twice. And on both occasions, it was a cyclone causing all the chaos.

The first natural disaster to hit the show came in 2016’s Fiji-shot Millennials vs. Gen X, resulting in all players being brought to base camp overnight (“To their credit, they did not talk or try to form alliances,” Probst told Entertainment Weekly). Two years later, a cyclone headed for the same island, interrupting season 37, David vs. Goliath. 

Contestant Jeff Varner was fired from his job for outing a transgender contestant.

One of the most shocking incidents in Survivor’s history occurred in 2017’s Game Changers—Mamanuka Islands  when, midway through a tribal council, Jeff Varner outed fellow player Zeke Smith as a transgender man. Not only did the former face a huge backlash from the rest of his tribemates—he was eliminated immediately—and viewers at home, he was also fired from his real estate day job.

“The Allen Tate Companies were built on core values of honesty, integrity, and respect,” the company’s president, Pat Riley, said in a press statement. “Those fundamental beliefs led us to end our relationship with Mr. Varner.” The contestant later tried to make amends by working with several LGBTQ organizations. 

Body doubles are used on the show.

Eagle-eyed Survivor viewers may have noticed that certain players don’t always look the same when shot from the back or from high above. And there’s a perfectly logical explanation for this: The show uses body doubles when necessary. Such switcheroos have no impact on the game or the narrative, however. The stand-ins are only ever used when producers need to get a better angle than those filmed with the real deal; aerial shots of the swimming challenges is one example. In another example of minor TV trickery, the show will also ask contestants to reshoot certain incidental scenes several times over.

A season 25 contestant is host Jeff Probst’s favorite.

More than 700 people have competed on Survivor across a quarter-century of hyper-competitive reality TV. You might, therefore, expect it to be a tall order for Jeff Probst to pick his favorite. But the longtime host had no trouble choosing when asked during an Entertainment Weekly panel: John Cochran, the winner of season 26, Caramoan, was given the accolade, with honorable mentions going to Spencer Bledsoe and Rob Cesternino. Probst also revealed that his favorite twist was season 11’s immunity idol and his favorite challenge is season 10’s “Ba Ba Booey” (or “Bob-Bob Buoy”).

Tyler Perry successfully pitched the show ideas.

Not content with impersonating an elderly woman, slapping his name across numerous melodramas, and joining forces with Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry has also found the time to pitch his favorite reality show an idea or two. Survivor has happily accepted several suggestions, too, including the controversial special powers idol that contestants could use once the votes had been revealed, a twist that was integral to Tony Vlachos’s victory in season 28, Cagayan. And he’s not the only star name to get involved, either. Late-night talk show host Jimmy Fallon sends over ideas as well.

Contestants can be fined $5 million for leaking spoilers.

In 2018, Alec Merlino uploaded an Instagram snap of himself alongside fellow season 37 competitor Kara Kay captioned, “F*** it.” The reason for the expletive was the cast hadn’t been officially announced by CBS at the time and so the photo was a clear breach of strict confidentiality protocols. Merlino could have been fined $5 million by the network for breaking his NDA, but instead lost a $10,000 appearance fee and was barred from the taping of the live finale. “That picture, it was unfortunate,” he later told Entertainment Weekly. “I take 100 percent ownership of it. It sucks. But I think things can be misconstrued and that’s all I really have to comment about that.”

Both walking and talking are sometimes forbidden.

Those scenes in which contestants leave camp for tribal council with torches in tow perfectly set the scene for all the drama ahead. But it’s all for show: In one of the many examples of televisual chicanery, the players are actually transported to the all-important meeting in a car.

Survivor also forbids all participants from communicating whenever they’re off camera. And that includes talking to the behind-the-scenes crew, too. “The reason for this is because we want their experience to be pure,” Probst explained to People. “The less involvement from production, the better.”

The reward food isn’t always much of a reward.

Although the show’s chefs have reportedly upped their game in recent years, the food Survivor used to reward contestants with wasn’t always that rewarding. In an interview with The Ringer, several former players claimed they’d have sent their dishes back if it had been served in restaurants back home. And pizza continually appeared to be the least appetizing. 

"It’s actually made of cardboard," Malcolm Freberg said. "There’s no flavor, there’s no sauce, the cheese … Everything about it was horrid." The three-time contestant was particularly scathing about the pizza served to him during the Philippines season that had been left in the baking hot sun for around five bacteria-attracting hours. 

It hasn’t broken Neilsen’s Top 20 since Season 23.

Survivor became an instant ratings hit when it launched at the turn of the millennium. In fact, by the following year, it had become the most-watched show on American TV. And it continued to reel in 20 million-plus viewers throughout the first half of the ’00s. But Survivor fatigue appears to have kicked in somewhere around 2012. For its 24th season, One World, was the first to entirely miss Nielsen’s Top 20 rankings and the reality series hasn’t returned to the list since. In recent years, viewing figures have hovered around the 7 million mark.

It spawned a theme park ride ...

Proof of just how effectively Survivor had entered the nation’s consciousness came in 2006 when California’s Great America theme park opened an attraction dedicated to the show. Survivor: The Ride involved a competition in which thrill-seekers tried to spray each other with water from gargantuan tribal masks; another part of the ride had them boarding a huge circular platform that spun moving along an undulating track. 

“The alliance between Survivor, TV’s hottest real-life adventure show, and coaster thrills is the perfect combination for a ride experience unlike any other,” Paramount’s Great America’s senior vice president Rod Rankin said at the time. Within a few years, however, the ride had been renamed Tiki Twirl. 

… and a terrible video game.

Just a year after it first hit screens, Survivor was given the video game treatment in a PC release that enabled fans to create their own characters, form alliances, and vote in tribal councils—but it’s fair to say that the experience didn’t exactly match the thrills and spills of the real thing. 

“The graphics are weak and even the greatest Survivor fan would break the CD in two after playing it for 20 minutes,” IGN said in its review. “If you're harboring even a tiny urge to buy this game, please listen very carefully to this advice: Don’t do it,” implored GameSpot. Game Revolution, meanwhile, compared it to “throbbing hemorrhoids.”

A fan favorite castmember wrote a hit horror film.

It’s widely known that before he began throwing together a bunch of terrible rich people in exotic places on The White Lotus, creator Mike White finished runner-up on Survivor. But were you aware that the show also welcomed another hit screenwriter, albeit one far less acclaimed? Three-time contestant Jonathan Penner (Cook Island, Micronesia, Philippines) penned The Bye Bye Man, a 2017 horror movie that grossed nearly $30 million at the box office—four times its modest budget. The film’s critical response wasn’t as glowing, however, with The A.V. Club describing it as “an uncommonly, at times unbelievably inept movie.” Ouch.

There are more than a dozen Survivor babies.

Who knew that Survivor would turn out to be an effective repopulation tool? At least five couples who met on the reality show have gone on to have kids, including Heroes vs. Villains’ Candice Woodcock and John Cody, Blood vs. Water’s Tyson Apostol and Rachel Foulger, China’s Erik Huffman and Jaime Dugan-Huffman, and  Survivor: All Stars’ Amber Brkich and “Boston” Rob Mariano, who have had four daughters since competing together in 2003. Mariano told Us Weekly, "Being a father is by far the most fulfilling thing I’ve ever done."

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