Survivor (franchise)
Survivor is a reality-competition television franchise produced globally. The show features a group of contestants deliberately marooned in an isolated location, where they must provide basic survival necessities for themselves. The contestants compete in challenges for rewards and immunity from elimination. The contestants are progressively eliminated from the game as they are voted out by their fellow contestants until only one remains to be awarded the grand prize and named the "Sole Survivor".
The British television producer Charlie Parsons developed the format for Survivor in 1992 for Planet 24, a United Kingdom television production company; the Swedish version, which debuted in September 1997 as Expedition Robinson, became the first Survivor series to be broadcast on television. Since its launch in 2000, the flagship American version of Survivor has aired 49 seasons of the show. The 50th season, commemorating the show's 25th anniversary, will air in early 2026.
Format
Survivor, through its seasons and various international versions, has maintained the basic premise of the game despite several new rules and gameplay twists introduced in later seasons. In the game, the contestants, known as castaways, are split into tribes and assigned separate camps at the filming location, typically a tropical setting. As a tribe, the castaways must survive the elements, construct shelter, build fire, look for water, and scrounge for food and other necessities for the entire length of the game, which is generally around 39 days for most versions including the American version, but has ranged from 20 days to over 150 days. In the first half of the game, the tribes face off in challenges, some for rewards of food, shelter, or luxury items, while others are for immunity, preventing the winning tribe from having to go to the next Tribal Council. At Tribal Council, the tribes discuss the events of the last few days with the host asking questions, and then vote out one of their own players, eliminating them from the game.In the second half of the game, the tribes are merged into a single tribe, and challenges are played at an individual level for individual rewards and immunity. At subsequent Tribal Councils, those eliminated start to form the jury, who sit in on all subsequent Tribal Councils but otherwise do not participate. When only two or three castaways remain, those castaways attend the Final Tribal Council, where the jury is given the opportunity to ask them questions. After this, the jury members then vote to decide which of the remaining castaways should be declared the Sole Survivor and be awarded the grand prize.
Episodes typically cover the events that occurred over two to three days since the start of the game or previous Tribal Council, including Challenges and events that occur at the tribes' camps. Each episode typically ends with the Tribal Council and the subsequent elimination of the voted-out player. The final episode will typically speed up the gameplay of the final couple of eliminations, followed by the Final Tribal Council on the final day of the completion. Many versions of the show will follow the final episode with a live reunion, during which the votes from the Jury are counted, and a "Sole Survivor" is declared, and the players reunite to discuss their experience on the island.
The following description of the show is based primarily on the American version of Survivor, though the general format applies to all international versions.
Castaways and tribes
Players for each season are selected through applicants and casting calls, down-selecting to between 16 and 20 players and additional alternates. American version host Jeff Probst noted that while 16 castaways assist in splitting the tribes with respect to age and sex, they have used 18 or 20 to provide them "wiggle room" in case of player injury or if one should want to quit the game. These players undergo physical and psychological evaluation to make sure they are physically and mentally fit for the survival endurance and will not likely quit during the filming period, replacing those that are questionable with the alternates. In one case, Fiji, on the day before filming was to start after they had dismissed their alternates, one of the castaways opted out of the competition, forcing production to start with 19 players and adapting the activities of the first few days to accommodate the odd number of players.Tribes may be predetermined by production before filming starts. Often this is done to equalize the sexes and age ranges within both tribes. Other seasons have had the tribes separated by age, gender, race or other characteristics. In other cases, the tribes may be created by the castaways through schoolyard picks. Most often, only two tribes are featured, but some seasons have begun with three or four tribes. Once assigned a tribe, each castaway is given a buff in their tribe color to aid the viewers in identifying tribal allocation. Tribes are then subsequently given names, often inspired by the local region and culture, and directions to their camps.
At their camps, tribes are expected to build a shelter against the elements from the local trees and other resources. Tribes are typically given minimal resources, such as a machete, water canteens, cooking pots, and staples of rice and grains, though this varies from season to season. Sometimes, tribes are provided with a water well near the camp, but require the water to be boiled to make it potable, necessitating the need for the tribe to build a fire. The tribes are encouraged to forage off the land for food, including fruits, wild animals, and fish.
Tribe swaps
In some seasons, tribe swaps occur where one or more players shift from one tribe to another. These new tribal designations are often determined by random draw or schoolyard pick. When these occur, those players that shift tribes are given new buffs for their new tribe and return to that tribe's camp, with any personal possessions from their former camp moved with them. In seasons with more than two tribes, tribe swaps often reduce the number of tribes to two. In Survivor: Cambodia, a tribe swap increased the number of tribes from two to three; a second tribe swap later in the season reduced the number of tribes back to two.Tribes that have lost too many members may be absorbed by the other remaining tribes, as seen with the Ulong tribe in Survivor: Palau and the Matsing tribe of Survivor: Philippines; in the former case, the lone remaining Ulong member joined the opposing Koror tribe and the tribes were treated as if they were merged, whereas in the later case the two remaining Matsing members were randomly assigned to the two remaining tribes. Alternatively, in Survivor: All-Stars, the tribe that placed third in a designated challenge was disbanded, with the members reallocated to the other two tribes by schoolyard pick.
Tribal merge
At a point in or around the middle of the game, the remaining tribes are merged into one. All of the players then live in a single camp, and are given new buffs and instructed to select a new tribe name and paint a tribe flag. The merge is often signified with a feast. Though the merge often occurs when approximately 10 to 12 players remain, the tribes have been merged with as many as 13 players and as few as eight.Challenges
During both pre- and post-merge parts of the game, the castaways compete in a series of challenges. Tribes are alerted to these upcoming challenges by a message, often in rhyme, delivered to camp by the production team at a basket or box on a nearby tree; this message has come to be called "treemail", playing off the word "e-mail". The message typically hints at what the challenge might be. The message may also provide props to demonstrate this, practice equipment for the players, or a sampling of the reward. Challenges can last from a few minutes to a couple of hours. The longest Survivor challenge was 11 hours and 55 minutes in the final immunity challenge in Survivor: Palau.Tribal challenges
Prior to the merge, tribes compete against each other in challenges. These most often are multi-segment obstacle courses that include both physical and mental elements with the tribe that finishes first declared the winner; commonly, these start with tribe members collecting puzzle pieces that are then used to solve a puzzle by other tribe members. Other challenges may be based on winning a number of rounds of head-to-head competitions. Challenges are normally held with equal numbers of all tribes participating and in some cases equal splits of gender. Tribes with more players will be asked to sit out as many players as needed to balance the numbers, with the stipulation that those players cannot sit out in back-to-back reward and immunity challenges. When one tribe has more than twice the other tribe members, then players in the larger tribe cannot participate in back-to-back challenges. Tribes are given time to strategically decide who should sit out and who will perform the various duties on a challenge.Individual challenges
After the merge, challenges are generally performed on an individual basis. These include similar obstacle courses as for team challenges, but will often also include endurance challenges, having players maintain the balance under precarious situations for as long as possible, with the last player remaining winning the challenge. In some cases, during post-merge challenges, the individuals will be split into separate teams, with only the winning team eligible for reward or immunity.Types of challenges
Challenges can be played for rewards, immunity, or both. Rewards include food, survival equipment like flint, tarps, or fishing gear, luxury items, and short getaways from camp. Before the merge, the entire winning tribe will enjoy these rewards. Post-merge, only one player may win the reward but will be given the opportunity to select one or more other players to bring along with them on it. Individual challenge rewards may also include an advantage that can be used at the subsequent immunity challenge, such as advancing directly into the final round of the challenge without having to participate in the first round.Immunity challenges provide the winning tribe or team with immunity from Tribal Council. Immunity is usually represented in a form of an idol prior to the merge, and a necklace afterwards. Prior to the merge, tribes with immunity do not attend Tribal Council, allowing them to stay intact. In seasons featuring more than two tribes, immunity will be available for all but the last place finishers, forcing this one tribe to Tribal Council. With individual immunity, those castaways still attend Tribal Council with the rest of the merged tribe, but, unless they assign immunity to someone else, are ineligible to be voted for. Winning immunity is only good for one Tribal Council; at the next immunity challenge, the tribe or castaway will be asked to give up the idol or necklace, making immunity "up for grabs". There have been a few cases in which individual immunity challenges have taken place prior to the merge whereupon usually, one castaway in each tribe will be given immunity, after which both tribes will attend Tribal Council, one after the other. This is used to quickly dwindle the number of remaining castaways.
Though a wide variety of challenges have been used across the Survivors broadcast, several challenges are frequently reused:
- A food eating challenge, involving food items that may be local delicacies but are considered gross or revolting by the castaways. These were more often seen in earlier seasons but in recent years have become much less frequent.
- A trivia or "know your tribe" quiz, where castaways who provide correct answers are allowed to knock other castaways out of the challenge and prevent them from winning.
- A "Survivor Auction", used in place of a reward challenge, in which the players are given a sum of money to use to bid on food items, other momentary luxuries like a bath, or advantages in the game, such as a clue to a hidden immunity idol or an advantage in the upcoming immunity challenge.
- A "loved ones" challenge, where a spouse, parent, sibling, adult child or friend of each castaway has been flown out to the location to participate in the challenge with or for their castaway. The winner typically gets to spend more time with their loved one, either on a brief trip or back at camp.
- A "second chance" challenge, where elements of previous challenges are reused in a single course.
- The final immunity challenge is often a long-lasting endurance challenge, giving the remaining castaways time to make bargains and last-minute deals to get into the final Tribal Council.