I watched a couple different behind the scenes on Survivor since I couldn’t find a thirty minute video. They showed me something’s that I had already known and also some that I never would’ve guessed to be true.

    I never really thought that costumes wear important on Survivor. Like everyone else, I assumed that people wear what they came to the show in, but I learned that that’s not true. The contestants have their outfits picked out for them and they’re often things that they would never even think of wearing. Also relating to the contestants, I thought they were picked from the many applications that are sent in like other game shows, but Survivor has a recruitment team that tries to had select the most entertaining and diverse group possible. I guess this makes sense since every season is really diverse. The game can be especially hard for some of the contestants. If you are a member of the LGBTQ community, the show will out you weather it’s ok with you or not, and it’s not just to the other contestants, but to the millions of people watching. This is what happened to Zeke in Survivor Game Changers when he was outed for being transgender.

    If the contestants want to be there and have a shot at winning, they have to overcome a lot. They all sign pretty hefty contracts that give away a lot of their rights. The producers take the image of the show very seriously so that contestants can’t shower or shave while they’re there, they can’t even brush their teeth. Contestants in the past have actually tried to use ash to clean their teeth. Despite what people may think about contestants being secretly given food, they get nothing other than what they earn and the small amounts of rice given each year( which is still being limited).

    I was surprised to learn that contestants are driven to and from challenges and tribal council. I guess it makes sense so they save their energy. The windows in the vehicles used are blacked out so the contestants can’t see any of the other camps or anything. A lot of contestants have said that being on the show is pretty boring. They’re expected to sit around all day waiting for producers to need them. The tribal council is often really boring for them. They do a bunch of takes of it so that everyone has the right emotions(you can imagine how long that takes). If you ever wondered why the votes are read in a really dramatic way, it’s cause the producers figure out everyone’s vote before hand so that they can arrange them to be dramatic.

    The contestants are pretty much living in their own, all the producers and other workers usually live at least two hours away. There are members there however since each contestant meets with a producer for around half an hour at least once every other day to talk about where they are in the game and strategy and other stuff. This also helps them make the confessionals really good and emotional. The producers may have some prompts or directions for the contestants, but the confessionals are unscripted and come from the heart. I wasn’t sure how the pay for the contestants work either. I knew that first place got one million, but second gets 100,000, and third gets 85,000. It’s not like everyone else goes home empty handed, they are all paid based on how long they’re in the game and their contributions to it in addition to the 10,000 everyone gets from the end of the year reunion special.

    It doesn’t sound like any easy task being a contestant, but with Survivor, I think it would be a fun and definitely interesting experience. It would also be cool to work on the set as someone who has meetings with the contestants so that I could see everyone’s strategies and how they play as the show is being made.