By Brianna Alleva
As a self proclaimed TV connoisseur, I am ashamed to admit that I have never watched Survivor. The show seemed appealing enough and has all of the elements I enjoy: competitions, mind games and survival, but I never actually sat down and gave it a shot. So, when we decided to start watching the latest season, season 50, I was shocked to see that I not only enjoyed the show but it was very familiar to me.
Starting at season 50 of a show is definitely an interesting experience. I feel like it is near impossible to even find another show that has lasted that long. Also, a lot had already been established and I felt at times like we were just late to the party.
Regardless, the show explained the rules and the hype surrounding the returning players coming back to compete well enough. So, as the game really started, all I was left to do was marvel at how many shows that started after Survivor premiered, took cues from the show itself.
Advertise on Streaming: Survivor
Audience Demographics for CTV Ads
- Adults 25–54, with especially strong engagement among viewers in the 35–49 range
- The audience is typically evenly split between men and women
- Viewers often over-index in interests like adventure travel, outdoor activities, strategy games, fitness, and social competition content, alongside other reality franchises.
- Many viewers are loyal weekly streamers or live-TV watchers who follow full seasons consistently, creating strong ad recall and repeat exposure opportunities on connected TV platforms.
Typical Advertisements for Streaming
- Fast food and restaurant commercials
- Car and truck advertisements
- Cell phone and internet provider ads
- Insurance company commercials
- Streaming services and movie/TV show promotions
Where to Stream: Survivor
- CBS, Pluto TV, (free)
- Hulu, Paramount+, Disney+, Roku Channel, FuboTV, Youtube (subscription)
- Fandango at Home ($1.99)
Now, it is easy enough to see similarities to shows that are about survival skills. I think of the show Alone or Naked and Afraid. In Survivor, the contestants are dropped in a remote location and told to “survive” there. The newer shows though, take it a step further giving the contestants nothing, sometimes not even the clothes on their back and audiences watch them build everything from scratch: it is entertaining and just fascinating to see.
Shows like Alone and Naked and Afraid do tend to lose my interest though when they go into actual survival situations, interestingly enough. I don’t want to see them going to the bathroom or breaking bones or getting cut. Survivor leaves that stuff off screen.
Other shows that have definitely taken notes from Survivor take their cues from the mind game/alliance/competition aspect. When watching, I saw similarities to shows like Traitors,The Mole and Million Dollar Secret (to name a few). These shows understand that audiences want to get mad at the screen watching players trusting the wrong players or backstabbing/blind siding others.
The idea of mind games in a reality TV show is not new but combining this with the survival aspect is. Survivor really understood that testing people’s physical and mental limits and how far they will go for money will always make good TV.
The last genre of shows that may or may not have taken ideas from Survivor are really just reality shows in general. This one was surprising to me but Survivor did premiere in 2000. Could this show have mainstreamed the format of reality competition shows?
Yes, The Real World was airing in the 1990s and pioneered unscripted shows but was Survivor the first to combine reality and competition?!
I am not positive that Survivor was the first of its kind BUT, it is clear that it was the first to have lasted this long and captured the audiences as well as it has. Audiences will never get tired of watching players be ruthless for money, backstab, build alliances and out-cunn the people around them.
So many years and seasons and winners have proven that the original was on to something.
