'Survivor' isn’t the show it used to be

A commercial for Survivor 50 plays on a television screen.

Art & Entertainment

OPINION:

By Jimmy Burch

Survivor is a reality TV show where people have to live out in the wilderness,

compete in challenges, make connections, take risks, and vote each other off.

The last player standing wins one million dollars. It first premiered in 2000,

twenty-six years ago. Since then, it has become a cultural phenomenon and

remains on the air to this day. The host, Jeff Probst, has been on every single

season. In just a couple weeks, the show is about to air its FIFTIETH season. A

huge milestone indeed. But is it really worth watching?

I say that because the show has declined in quality. Back in the old days,

Survivor used to travel around the globe, from China to the Amazon. Each

season, they went to a different location. But since 2009, they kept filming

back-to-back seasons. This became an awful habit to this very day. Each year,

two seasons are filmed in one location, back-to-back. Now, a likely reason for

this is for the show to save money. I completely understand if this is the case,

but it really puts an effect on the quality. But at least they were still traveling.

That is, until 2016.

Starting in season 33, they have filmed in the exact

same location to this day, the Mamanuca Islands in Fiji. The producers made

a great deal that saved them a lot of money; not to mention the beauty of the

location really satisfied them. I get it, it is a great place to film. But when you

stop travelling and keep filming in the same place up to today, it gives fans a

bland taste eventually. The campsites have become too recognizable and

boring. However, the format of the show remained the same and still had its

enjoyments of entertainment and personality.

But then, everything changed starting in season forty-one. The coronavirus

pandemic happened. And once filming returned, two weeks of quarantine

meant the producers chose to reduce the number of days contestants would

spend down from thirty-nine to twenty-six, which is a HUGE downgrade. Oh,

and no live reunions. Instead, we have aftershows right after filming where

there is no red carpet and the pre-jury is not present.

Eventually, those pandemic restrictions were lifted.

So you would expect things to go back to normal, right? Unfortunately not. Jeff and his fellow producers used these pandemic changes as an opportunity to build up a so-called “New Era,” featuring a fast-paced game, lack of resources and big rewards, dropping the “guys” in Jeff Probst’s “Come on in guys!” phrase, those annoying beware advantages, the journey twist, emotional stories, and this terrible “Earn the Merge” thing they’ve done where only half the cast gets to take part in the honorable merge feast rather than everybody. Now that’s too cruel. These twists kept getting repeated every season after, which has become extremely repetitive.

These are all just excuses to convince people to believe that shortened

seasons are better and hide the face that the show has declined in quality.

And they kept shoving their braggings about this overrated era down our

throats I used to be a fan of this show and watched religiously since season

twenty-eight (Cagayan). But the new era (if you can even call it new anymore)

has thrown me off. Watching it was like torture and I stopped watching after

season forty-four. And unless they change things back to what they were, I

will never watch Survivor again.