Survivor’s big challenge: Outwit, outlast, outplay the laid-back Aussie

THE US version of Survivor has always been a ratings winner with Australian audiences. But there is one thing that may mean the Aussie version fails.

IT’S the cult show which became an enduring worldwide hit franchise, but Australian Survivor’s biggest challenge may be right there in the title: it’s Australian.

Ten’s big gun offering of the year starts on Sunday night and is already on a collision course with the opposition reality shows.

Channel Nine will reel out another series of reality renovation show The Block, and on Monday, Seven’s much-hyped new reality cooking show, Zumbo’s Just Desserts enters the fray.

But the biggest enemy may come from within: Australian Survivor has the weight of history against it. In the past 14 years two attempts at a local version were abandoned after just one season.

On Nine in 2002, viewers despaired over a cut-price production and the apparent inability of contestants to bring the bitchy and form the back-stabbing alliances so addictive in the US version. Instead, contestants had a laid back, “well he was an idiot, but he’s a good bloke” approach to conflict. Seven’s Celebrity Survivor a year later suffered a similarly lacklustre fate. Both shows were canned after just one season.

But Ten’s bold resurrection has the advantage of local TV networks and production companies spending more than a decade perfecting the reality television format — creating shows of their own, of giving proven overseas formats an Australian twist.

The Aussie Jeff Probst: Australian Survivor host Jonathon LaPaglia. Picture: Nigel Wright

Production values across the board are higher, and casting is savvier in a climate in which both contestants, and those who select them, know better how to play the reality TV “game”. And how to edit the results.

Which leaves Ten chief programming officer Beverley McGarvey confident Australian Survivor is better equipped to outwit, outlast and outplay than its predecessors.

There’s a determination to emulate, but not replicate, the US format.

To that end, producers Endemol Shine hired more than 150 Australians and 180 locals to pull off Australian Survivor in Samoa.

McGarvey said the challenges of making international formats with an Australian feel without the Aussie cliches is a balancing act, which Ten has finetuned across two seasons of I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here in South Africa.

McGarvey famously said going into the second season of I’m A Celebrity “Australians aren’t scared of enough stuff”. It’s a realisation that what makes Aussie tick is quite different to Americans.

“Australian people and the culture have a very specific feel,” McGarvey said.

“What we are seeing in Survivor is Australians are playing a very different game and have a very different approach to competition than the Americans.

“There are lots of different and big personalities in the game, but we have discovered to be true, or been reminded of, is Australians value mateship.

“Although they value competitiveness to a major degree, they are also very loyal. In reality shows you get that very Australian angle.

“You even see it in shows like Family Feud, which is very different in the US to Australia.”

It doesn’t mean the Aussies are softer. Just different, she says.

They save their real fight for competition. That’s the point at which sheer bloody-mindedness emerges.

“I think it’s maybe Australia’s sporting culture influence,” says McGarvey.

“In physical challenges in the US version that may go for a certain time, filming the Australian version takes a lot longer.

“If there’s a competition to hold something up longer than the others to win, Australians are just so determined that the challenge will just go on and on.”

And inevitably, as the pressure mounts in a foreign environment, even the most easygoing of Aussies will start to crack.

Adriano Zumbo and Rachel Khoo from Zumbo’s Just Desserts. Picture: Channel 7

Certainly Survivor looks pretty — sweeping secerns of Samoa show no expense spared, and easy on the eye host Jonathon LaPaglia seems a good fit for an Aussie Jeff Probst.

The 24 “survivors” range in age from 23 to 62. And the 24 and include a schoolteacher, a lawyer, the inevitable ex-Army dude and a magician. Savvy cast selection means they appear well versed in the reality TV necessities of game playing and manipulation, albeit Aussie-style.

But all the prettiness in the world won’t matter if fans of Survivor — and there are many — don’t get that power struggle in paradise.

The Block, while in its 12th season may have its ratings on the slide, but is a wily, seasoned player.

By Monday, after the Olympics finish, Seven will start its heavily promoted Zumbo’s Just Desserts.

But its mix of MasterChef and Great Australian Bake-off may satisfy the appetites of neither of those shows’ fans.

The Block starts at 7pm on Sunday on Nine

Australian Survivor starts at 7.30pm Sunday on Ten

Zumbo’s Just Desserts starts at 7.30pm Monday on Seven

Another turn around The Block: The Block’s Scott Cam. Picture: Channel 9

Originally published as Survivor’s big challenge: Outwit, outlast, outplay the laid-back Aussie