Behind the scenes of “Survivor” season 48

Share 18 strangers into three “tribes”; Let them fall with little food and without protection on remote islands and let them outwood and outwood each other until the last standing person is crowned at the winner of a price of 1 million US dollars. When the adventure reality game show “Survivor” debuted on CBS in May 2000, nothing was previously seen as on American television.

Asked to describe the series, said “Survivor” host and showrunner Jeff Probst: “It is a social experiment because it requires a group of people who do not know each other and forces them to rely on each other while She plays this game in which you coordinate each other.

Probst invited “Sunday morning” to see this experiment for ourselves in Fiji when he started to grasp season 48 on Wednesday on CBS and Paramount+ Premiere.

When asked whether he is still nervous the series for the 48th, Probst replied: “I’m not getting nervous on” Survivor “. It’s strange.

And it is this uncertainty that has made “Survivor” one of the most popular shows on television for a quarter of a century. The show is an average of around 6 million viewers in an episode. In the past 24 years, fans have seen ten and a half half together billion hours

“When I knew that ‘Survivor’ would be interesting, the first day of the first season was” strength position in a tree. And Sue Hawk, a truck driver from Wisconsin, looked up and said: ‘Where I come from, we work while we talk.’ “

While Probst had no doubt, “Survivor” almost didn’t happen. Mark Burnett, the British television producer behind hits like “The Apprentice” and “Shark Tank” (and now President Trump’s newly designated special officer in the United Kingdom), has a Swedish reality series (“Expedition: Robinson”) and a Swedish reality series (“Expedition: Robinson”) and Robinson newly introduced. took his idea for almost every US TV network.

“And every network said: ‘No, that’s a crazy idea. We don’t want to do it,” said Probst. “But Mark is not easy to take off. So he went out and got sponsors for the entire show.”

At that time, Probst organized music shows on cable television (including VH1S “Rock & Roll Jeopardy!”). “I was literally the last person,” he said. “I heard Mark talking about ‘Survivor’ in a radio interview. And he described the show. I knew when I heard it heard; I said it to all of my friends: ‘This is my show, I waited for that.’ “

Today Probst (now also the showrunner) has his hands in every aspect of production, including the combing of more than 15,000 audition bands that arrive every year. “I know within 30 seconds, to be honest, within 30 seconds I am pretty sure you will be on the show or not,” he said. “Some people convince immediately.”

People like Stephanie Berger, a technical product manager from New York City and one of the chosen ones this season. Asked in Fiji what her strategy will be for the game, Berger replied: “In my daily life, everyone will tell you that I will be the alpha as I like to be. How the control. And I know that I know here Don’t get out and not do that.

Kyle Fraser is a candidate from Roanoke, Virginia. “When I started to see ‘survivor’, I knew that this game was for me,” he said.

I asked, “Are you ready to lie? How do you draw the line in your game?”

“Listen, I have to lie,” said Fraser. “You know, I will not tell people that I am a lawyer.”

Participants don’t just have to build trust through possible means. From the moment you have to gain or risk mental and physical challenges, to be coordinated.

Probst says what we see is never staged or written, including tribal councils in which he has the candidates outside the grills cuff, a skill that he has developed over time.

I said, “You are a student of psychology and anthropology.”

“Without the end!” Probst laughed. “I always loved all of this. I just never officially applied it. I didn’t want to become a psychologist; I wanted to be a storyteller.”

What it creates on television is carefully selected from thousands of hours, in which video was shot around the clock for 26 days in one of the largest television productions on earth. “It is a great trick, because if you watch ‘survivor’, it feels intimate and is so,” said Probst. “When the tribes are on the beaches, there is only a small handful of crew and producers. But if you come to a challenge or a tribal council, you know there are cameras everywhere. We have about 400 people who are our international crew. Then we have another 400 Fijians who also work with us. So we are almost 1,000 people. “

Every season films in summer, whereby the crews arrive in advance and transform a resort into a production village.

Roberta Limjap, who works in the art department, said: “It’s not just work, but also a family.”

All materials, equipment and props are manufactured here. “Everything is made new from the ground up,” she said. “You can’t buy that.”

Dozens of young production aids test every detail of the challenges, while the crew camera hobs have.

I had my chance. And yes, it is much more difficult than it looks. And tribal members often occur exhausted and hungry. They are not fed when the cameras are switched off.

I tried to survive. Opening a coconut is not easy. “You know what I’m afraid of? Take off my thumb,” I laughed.

The co-executive producer Jimmy Quigley trained me by starting a fire while I caught a fish with a spear gun on my first attempt. Happiness of the beginner!

What is not lucky is “Survivor” by “Survivor”. “This freedom of play keeps us out here in the middle of the Fiji,” said Probst, who is the ultimate survivor after 47 seasons.

“It sounds like they are there to the end?” I asked.

“I’m now there,” replied Probst. “I have no idea not to be there. But I mean, yes, if you say at 86 I think I may be too old! But I never really look like that. Feel a part of a team.

See an extended interview with Jeff Probst:

To view a preview of the new season of “Survivor”, click on the video player below:

For more information:

History produced by Jay Kernis. Editor: Lauren Barnello.