There was a brief and beautiful window of 2020 when people called me Jeff. As in Jeff Probst, the legendary host and executive producer of Survivor. I was one of three “Jeffs” and together we were organising the greatest game of Survivor we could imagine.
For our friends. In Melbourne. Australia. (No spoilers.)
In the 21-year-old reality TV show, “tribes” of strangers are left in remote locations to fend for themselves, compete in challenges and vote each other out until one person is awarded the title of Sole Survivor.
My friends have been organising increasingly elaborate amateur Survivor weekends for years. There’s no greater joy than watching a bunch of uncaffeinated Melburnians scramble for a flat white during a reward challenge. Sure it might seem strange to “play” a TV show, but we’re not alone in acting on our fandom. There are a number of US-based fan productions on YouTube that, as one Redditor notes, “stay true to the essence of the game”. Because Survivor shares a lot with how we engage with sport: we champion players during fixed seasons and, because of its winning formula, we can play it ourselves.
Survivor fandom is less parasocial, imagining a bond with a TV personality, than it is just plain social. For a show about destructive winner-takes-all social dynamics, it has an uncanny ability to draw people together. Heading into Melbourne’s fifth lockdown yesterday, my friend Claire messaged our group chat with the only consolation any of us could find: “Oh well. At least we have Survivor this lockdown.”
Because Australian Survivor is back on Sunday night! We no longer have to survive without Survivor anymore.
After being shuffled around networks for over a decade, the Australian Survivor franchise finally found an immunity idol at Ten in 2016, where for the past five seasons it’s grown a stable, passionate viewership (it’s yet to be voted off the network). For the first time since its (arguably, justifiably forgotten) first season that aired on Nine in 2002, this year Australian Survivor filmed locally, in Cloncurry, Queensland.
Our very own “Jeff” – Jonathan LaPaglia – is back for his sixth season, with the “Brains V Brawn” theme giving hope to viewers thirsty for more puzzle challenges. After seasons of being marooned beachside in Fiji or Samoa, the landlocked outback location will provide an interesting spin for contestants and viewers.
Australian Survivor was last on our screens in late March 2020: a local All Stars series won by “Golden God” David Genat just as we were heading into the depths of Covid hell.
Online watch parties meant we could still watch the US version’s 40th season, Survivor: Winners At War, with friends – but it all felt a bit too real when (the real) Jeff hosted the finale from his Covid-safe garage, plonked on a stool next to his mountain bikes. It brought a whole new meaning to his classic Survivor line “come on in guys!” – and when the credits rolled on that final episode in May 2020, for a season featuring only winners, it felt like my friends and I were losing something.
Not only were we headed into a four-month lockdown in Melbourne, but we were stranded without any Survivor as production across both series halted.
I am getting ready for tomorrow’s season finale of #Survivor: Winners at War... from my garage. @survivorcbs pic.twitter.com/8NL2LXK9ns
— Jeff Probst (@JeffProbst) May 12, 2020
We made the decision to put our amateur Survivor “season” on hold. We three Jeffs hung up our official Outwit, Outplay, Outlast caps and medevaced ourselves to our separate living rooms, where we were doomed to stay for a large portion of the next 18 months.
For Survivor fans accustomed to marking our calendars by the seasons – and by that I don’t mean weather – it was hard to adjust. For years, every February and September we’d get a new Survivor from the States, then in May we’d get Australian Survivor. Having no Survivor was just another way that time felt unstructured in lockdown.
Of course, Survivor wasn’t the only production impacted by Covid. But here’s the thing about reality TV viewers: we’re appointment TV viewers who hate to have their appointment postponed. Part of the joy of watching reality TV, especially one with a social fandom like this, is the ability to share it with others in real time, be it in person, on social media or in group text chains.
In a lockdown situation, where time feels like sludge and your social life strained, the absence of this regular, reliable series was noticeable. I don’t want to binge TV, for episodes to blur like the lines between days and weeks, between work and home. I want something to cling to!
Obviously lockdowns suck, but I’m genuinely thrilled that this time around we have Australian Survivor with us. Watching people scramble for votes is much more enjoyable than watching people scramble for toilet paper at the supermarket. In a time of such volatility, the only blindside I crave is one at tribal council. Finally I can once again structure my evenings around event television. I won’t be late to that appointment – there’s nowhere else to go.
• Survivor Australia: Brains V Brawn premieres Sunday 18 July At 7.30pm, on Network Ten
