Whenever I cycle out this list, there are usually only two shows that get people giving me an odd look - Battlestar Galactica (9) and Survivor. We’ve already talked about BSG, but it’s time to look at Survivor, which ends the 42nd season tonight.
Yes, 42 seasons. And Survivor is an outlier on this list for a few reasons - it’s a game show, for one. And it’s an unscripted reality show for another. Reality TV has a bad reputation, and not just because of the dumbest line in The Departed:
The name evokes some crazy, awful shows from the early 2000’s, many of which were obviously staged and not “reality” in any way, shape or form. Unscripted is a much better way of talking about shows featuring folks who are not actors reading scripts but instead being filmed in a very surreal, controlled environment.
And in all of these, it’s hard to argue that Survivor isn’t the best of the bunch.
For one, it’s had the same host, Jeff Probst (hey that rhymes) for all 42 seasons, which is really incredible. And Probst is, simply, the damn best. He calls the challenges with enthusiasm and the level of details that you’d expect from a documentary filmmaker, his profession before the show started. And though it’s clear that things like Tribal Council are heavily edited (we see maybe ten minutes at most of what apparently can last two or three hours), he probes and evokes the kind of reactions that make for incredibly riveting television.
I’ve seen others say this so I won’t pretend it’s my unique opinion, but the other reason Probst is so good is he LOVES Survivor. He loves the competition, the social part of the game, etc. He is excited when folks do well in competition, and is openly disdainful if/when someone quits or intentionally loses a challenge. This show would be dramatically different and undoubtedly worse if and when Probst leaves the production.
This exercise states that every season matters, which is one main reason Survivor can’t be higher in my rankings. In 42 seasons, there have certainly been a few that are really unmemorable - but at the time, I enjoyed the shows plenty. The show did start going down the rabbit hole of trying to cast only gorgeous people, mainly fledgling actors, and the show suffered a lot. So it gets demerits for that. (A moment where things could have gone much worse was when Probst offered chocolate and peanut butter and two contestants offered to get naked in order to get this treat.) Look, it’s not that show and we’re all better for it.
In what is either a mark of my old, infirm age OR a mark that in 42 seasons, there have been over 600 contestants (with some people playing in multiple seasons, for better and worse). That’s hard to keep track of. Or, maybe I’m old. But either way, it’s not uncommon for me to see someone identified as being from a season on Survivor and it’s like I’ve never seen them before whatsoever. That’s not really the case with any other show on this list, but again - the show is an outlier here in many ways.
Indeed, the show was heading towards a fairly predictable, potentially boring path with its cast and gameplay. But that’s where Survivor is different from almost all other shows in reality/unscripted programming - they figured it out. Instead of casting pretty people who don’t really know the game (or care about it) but like the idea of being on TV, they’ve cast people from all walks of life. It took long enough, but the show does seem to try and be casting people from different socioeconomic, ethnicity and sexual preference.
But on the most important metric, almost all contestants are alike. They are almost all diehard Survivor fans. It’s been on so long that some people have watched it for the majority of their lives. They may not be great athletes or look like supermodels, (though of course it’s a TV show and there are pretty people too). Just people who LOVE the game and have their own ways to compete.
Survivor has also done one thing that other shows simply fail at - every season or so, they tweak the game just enough to keep things interesting. This is great both for the competitors and the viewers. Another thing that used to be a big deal was where the next season would be filmed. Did you know the last ten seasons have been in Fiji? I didn’t. Cause it doesn’t matter.
The show has rightfully focused on what makes the show good - Jeff Probst, good/interesting competitions, a good cast, and small tweaks to keep things fresh. It’s motto is Outwit, Outplay, Outlast. And winning the show continually requires all of those things.
Look, I know that if you don’t watch, you’re rolling your eyes right now. I can almost see it. And that’s fine. You don’t have to love the show, which concludes it’s 42nd season tonight. But inherently, it’s the best show in the genre it largely helped to create, and it’s stayed on top of the class continually. You might even say (and yes, I hate myself a bit for even writing this) it’s done so by outwitting, outplaying and certainly outlasting the competition.
Sigh. Anyway, it’s my 12th favorite show.
If you’re keeping track, and I’d like to be clear that I worry if you are, here’s what we have so far.
Amen