With the new Survivor season just around the corner, I thought it was time to hype the return of everyone’s favourite reality game show, and preview some of the rumours floating around the blog-o-sphere with regards to the opening episode.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly back in June, longstanding host of the show Jeff Probst, revealed that the opening of Survivor Cambodia will have a correlation to the first, where 15 years ago, the contestants were stranded in the middle of the south china sea with little supplies that they had to salvage from a small fishing boat before being thrown overboard. The opening episode was even called ‘The Marooning’ after the event, which then saw the 16 Survivors paddle to shore to start their 39-day adventure.
This has also been emulated twice since then, in season 13 (Cook Islands) and season 25 (Philippines) but I’m sure with the start of the next decade of Survivor episodes starting with Cambodia, the producers are looking to mark this as a special occasion. Jeff also revealed that “we sent them [the castaways] on this huge journey through old, historic parts of Cambodia“, which for a fan of the show will bring to mind the beginning of Survivor China.
Survivor China was a special season because it started off with the contestants traveling together (with luggage in tow) through the bustling streets of the capital to old villages deep in the heartland of China itself. Once there, the castaways participated in a ritual that welcomed them to land and brought them luck on their journey. With the show filming in Cambodia for the first time, it is ample opportunity to show the fascinating sights, culture and traditions of the locals before boarding the boat and beginning the game.
With the ‘survivors’ already knowing one another, it will be interesting to see if they will be allowed to interact before beginning the game, which will allow for scenes of strategy talk even before they hit the beach whilst on their journey to the location. With Second Chance already breaking the convention of revealing contestants who could possibly return before filming had even began, it isn’t out of the realm of possibility that with season 31, the producers are looking to break the mould of reality TV’s most successful game show once again. Survivor Cambodia – Second Chance will air on CBS this fall on September 23.
#Peace.Love.SurvivorCambodia
