Australian Survivor launches on TEN this Sunday night at 7:30pm. Hosted by Jonathan LaPaglia, the series is one of multiple international versions that have been spun off from the original Swedish version of the format. It is the third attempt to launch a local Survivor series, with producers promising that this version is based heavily on the US version of the format – considered the Survivor gold standard.
These 10 facts offer an insight into the scale of Ten’s Australian Survivor production:
1) There have been 237 series of Survivor to date in 74 territories around the world. There will be another 16 to 20 taking place in 2016. To date, approximately 5,700 episodes have been broadcast.
2) Charlie Parsons created the Survivor format in the early 90s, but was so different that broadcasters were unsure whether it would work. There was no such thing as reality TV at the time. In 1997, SVT in Sweden greenlit the show, with the first season was filmed in Malaysia.
3) Over 15,000 Australians auditioned for Australian Survivor to be one of the 24 contestants on the show.
4) The Australian Survivor production had over 250 Australians working on the show in Samoa, with an additional 180 Samoans employed on the production.
READ: Australian Survivor EP Stephen Tate explains what went into producing the new series
5) Australian Survivor’s Tribal Council set took seven weeks to create and includes handcrafted props and carvings made by artists from the local Samoan School of Fine Arts.
6) All of the props and sets produced for the show were made in an art workshop near the Tribal Council set. This warehouse will be turned into a recycling plant once the production is complete.
7) Sixteen cameras were used in shooting Australian Survivor at multiple sites across Samoa. This included GoPro cameras and drones.
8) The US version has filmed four seasons on Survivor in Samoa previously. The government, including the Prime Minister, and local villages are very supportive of the production.
9) The first season finale of the US version attracted an audience of 51.69 million viewers.
10) With more episodes to air, Australian Survivor contestants are in camp for 55 days. This is 16 days longer that the US version of the show.
