When it was revealed last year that Australian Survivor was returning after a ten-year absence, fans were pumped. Over 15,000 hopeful Aussies applied to take part in the cutthroat island adventure game show and earlier this year 24 of those applicants were selected and flown to Samoa for an epic 55 day battle for $500,000.
The current season comes to an end this coming Tuesday when one of the final five castaways (El, Flick, Kristie, Lee or Matt), will be crowned the Sole Survivor and winner of the half a million dollars. But fans don’t have to worry about the future of Australian Survivor as TEN has confirmed a second season will air in 2017.
Beverly McGarvery, TEN’s Chief Content Officer, said, “We are pleased that audiences have embraced Australian Survivor and that the local format has impressed new viewers as well as winning over critics and super fans. Survivor is a truly iconic and smart entertainment series. We are very pleased to be working with our partners at Endemol Shine Australia and Castaway Television to bring it back to television screens in 2017.”
Endemol Shine Australia’s Managing Director for Unscripted Content, Peter Newman, also heaped praise on the first season and its cast. “We were blown away by the capabilities of our first cast, and now that everyone has seen Australians play this incredible game we can’t wait to see who wants to put their hand up to take part in season two.”
While ratings for the current season have been sluggish, TEN has pointed to the show’s popularity in the 25 to 54-year-old demographic, the social media buzz and critical reception as signs of the format’s success. “People are watching, they are just watching on multiple platforms,” said Stephen Tate, TEN’s head of Entertainment and Factual Programs.
It is true that Australian Survivor has received critical praise in both its home country and internationally. The high-quality production value, old-school focus on survival and (some) new twists have been applauded. However, it has also come under criticism from superfans due to the excessive length of the series resulting in many non-elimination episodes. Also, certain twists, like the early merge/swap, were deemed unfair due to stacking one tribe with all the strong players making the game lopsided.
But with a second season commissioned, TEN and Endemol Shine Australia will have the opportunity to work out the kinks before Australian Survivor returns to our screens next year.
Applications for Australian Survivor Season 2 are now open at survivorcasting.com.au and will close 10th of February 2017.
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I recommend Caramoan as the season 2 location! It has the infrastructure necessary for a starter series (similar to Samoa) because it has been used by over a dozen international versions. Plus, it would offer new cultural theming (I recommend an Asian theme to contrast the Samoan theme from season 1).
Or Japan/China. Anywhere where they can incorporate theme culture into the theme (I know Aussie Survivor can execute this perfectly).
This is legitimately exciting news!
I’m glad the show will get an opportunity to work through the teething problems of its first season, and hopefully it will manage to produce a season with some more interesting and competitive gameplay!
As an old school Super fan I have no issues with the non-elimination episodes. One of the things the US version was lacking was time spent on cast development. These episodes and the 55 day format allow viewers to learn much more about the cast, and in my Survivor community that is something folks felt was lacking with the US version. The viewers are much more invested in the show when they can connect with a player or players, and have somebody they can root for.That happens in a stronger way when viewers feel like they are getting to know the players in the game, and the format used this season raises the bar above what CBS has been offering as of late.
yep, AuSurvivor had its issues (mostly the very unbalanced swap), but for me the length of a couple of non-elimination episodes weren’t a negative thing at all, perhaps the opposite!
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I’m an Argentine fan of Survivor. I have seen every season I could find. This one was great! I wish the American version was as long as this, both the season and the episodes. My only critics are: they should not give a tribe so much power, or else it gets boring. That’s what happened in the first merge, when Sanaapu chose their members. It sucks seeing the same tribe eliminating their members over and over again. And PLEASE!!!! STOP SPOILING THE FUN WITH OBVIOS SUSPENSE MUSIC! They spoil challenge wins and also players eliminations. THAT REALLY SUCKS. Other than that, well done, Australia, I can’t wait to see next season. Oh, and bring Phoebe back some time!
totally agree with your comment:) btw suspense music always kills my.. suspense even in the US version, horrible. PS: there NEEDS to be a US vs. AUS season somewhere down the line (Phoebe should be no. 1 cast)