Survivor (also known as Survivor UK outside of the UK) is a British adventure reality game show based on the international Survivor format. Following the premise of other versions of the Survivor format, the show features a group of contestants, referred to as "castaways" as they are marooned in an isolated location. The castaways must provide food, water, fire, and shelter for themselves. The contestants compete in various challenges for rewards and immunity from elimination. The contestants are progressively eliminated from the game as they are voted off the island by their fellow castaways. The final castaway remaining is awarded the title of "Ultimate Survivor" and a large monetary prize.
The series aired for two seasons on the ITV network in 2001 and 2002, but the series was considered a ratings failure despite the programme having a higher viewership than other reality series at the time, including Big Brother. ITV cancelled Survivor after two seasons because it had failed to garner a loyal viewership. The network admitted fault for not supporting the series enough in its launch phase, highlighting the key issue with their approach to the scheduling of the series.
In September 2022, a revival of the series was announced by the BBC to be broadcast in 2023.
Format
The show follows the same general format as the other editions of Survivor. To begin, the players are split into two tribes and are taken to a remote, isolated location and are forced to live off the land with meagre supplies for a period of several weeks. Frequent physical and mental challenges are used to pit the tribes against each other for rewards, such as food or luxuries, or for immunity, forcing the other tribe to attend Tribal Council, where they must vote one of their tribemates out of the game by secret ballot.
About halfway through the game, the tribes are merged into a single tribe, and challenges are on an individual basis; winning immunity prevents that player from being voted out. Most players that are voted out during this stage become members of the Tribal Council Jury. When only two or three players remain, the Final Tribal Council is held. The finalists plead their case to the Jury as to why they should win the game. The jurors then have the opportunity to interrogate the finalists before casting their vote for which finalist should be considered the "Ultimate Survivor" and be awarded the grand prize. The prize on the 2001–2002 ITV iteration was £1,000,000 and is £100,000 on the 2023 BBC iteration.
Like other editions of the show, the British edition has introduced numerous modifications or twists on the core rules to prevent players from over-relying on strategies that succeeded in prior seasons or other editions of the show. Most notably, the Hidden Immunity Idols (small trinkets hidden on the island) were introduced part way through the third season. Players can use these hidden idols to save themselves or another player at the Tribal Council from being voted off. Also introduced was The Outpost, which exiles players for a predetermined amount of time while offering dilemmas and decisions that may help or hinder their game.
History
Original run
The first series, Survivor: Pulau Tiga, premiered on ITV on 21 May 2001. Billboards were shown across the UK displaying the slogan "You Don't Win, You Survive". The billboards created confusion amongst viewers as it misled them into thinking people would die throughout the game. Executive producer Nigel Lythgoe complained to the Heat magazine about the decision. He said: "The tagline when I left for Borneo was 'Trust No One', which is great. When I got back it was, 'You Don't Win, You Survive'. Well, you did win – you won a million pounds! And of course you survive, because we're not going to let you die." Despite Survivor receiving initial media coverage, the debut episode opened with 6.6 million viewers, which was seen as a disappointment for ITV. Despite the figures, an ITV spokesperson said: "We couldn't have hoped for anything better. We never expected 10m on the first night although we hope it will build to this. You have got to remember that we introduced 16 strangers and a complicated gameshow to the audience and we are confident it will grow. It's already a massive talking point, making the front pages." Ratings for the series then dropped to an average of 5 million, which was half of the audience that the network had expected. In response, ITV made the decision to transmit fewer episodes per week to allow the anticipation for the series to grow. However, their change failed to have an impact on viewing figures. Nevertheless, the finale of the first series garnered 7.7 million viewers, peaking at 9 million.