Survivor: Ten Years Later, The Tribe Still Speaks

In the summer of 2000, the cultural landscape of the new millennium hadn’t done much in the way of defining itself. But on May 31st, CBS put 16 strangers on a rat infested island in the South Pacific and changed the world forever. Nearly 10 years, 19 seasons, and a near infinite number of imitators later, Survivor is still at the top of its class. In fact, along with American Idol and The Bachelor, Survivor represented the genesis of reality show mania that has been with us for better and for much worse ever since.

Survivor in a nutshell: take a handful of clueless average Americans, split them into tribes, toss them into a tropical wilderness, make them run summer camp obstacle courses, then force them to ruthlessly vote each other out in a Machiavellian popularity contest. Fairly simple concept, but one with enough flexibility and social strategy lurking beneath the surface that with a little help from high production values, an engaging host, and one heck of a casting director, remains almost as novel and entertaining as that first heady summer of discovery.

When the show first premiered, there was surprisingly little of the backstabbing, collusion, and senate-worthy vote mongering that are now the show’s hallmark. But then a shifty corporate trainer with a propensity for public nudity named Richard Hatch started throwing the word “alliance” around, giving America its first full fledged Reality Show Villain. And yet the show’s ingenious endgame in which a jury of the fallen votes for the ultimate million dollar winner rewarded Rich’s manipulative ways, which is really as it should be in a game with the motto “Outwit, Outplay, Outlast”.

The 18 seasons that followed those first hours of wonder have had their ups, downs, and some truly questionable concepts (segregating tribes by race?!?) but the show remains constantly entertaining and has unearthed dozens of memorable personalities, enough to generate one and a half seasons of all-star contestants (half since season 16 cleverly pitted vets against first time players). Even more exciting, the grand 20th season kicking off in the new year will pit Survivor’s greatest villains against memorably noble souls on a team of heroes. The visions of sugarplums dancing in my head have already been replaced by ones of the glorious sparks that would fly in a showdown between greats like Rupert, season 7’s grizzly bear pirate with a heart of gold and Russell, the scrappy oilman with strategic genius to spare who was so unfairly denied his ultimate victory in the most recent go-round. However it all shakes down, you can bet I’ll be glued to every moment just like I’ve been for the last 10 years.

Survivor returns to CBS in February 2010.

For more television reviews, click here.

Photographs courtesy of CBS.