If there’s one enduring quality about Aussies, it’s that we never have just one crack at something. Back in 2002, it would be fair to say the Australian Survivor didn’t work out. Perhaps someone who was involved in the production back then might care to drop us a line and explain what exactly happened, but it would be fair to say that while the US version of the show was going from strength to strength, our little spin off kind of died.
But come Sunday, we’re back to give it another crack. And we’re not pussy-footing around either. While the format of the US game is well know as the ultimate 39 day mental and physical endurance test, a batch of 24 Aussies spent 55 Days on the Island, which happens to be in Upolu, Samoa. Yep, a whole extra 16 days. Basically another 50% on top of the usual test in conditions amongst some of the harshest that host Jonathan LaPaglia could imagine.
“It was a tough experience just being there to host the competitive and tribal council segments of the show,” he explains. “The heat is brutal, and just calling some of the challenges made me nauseous on the bad days. Then there’s he rain. The South side of the Island, where we were filming, gets more rain than the North and the contestants are out in this with nothing more than a banana palm. We’d hear it hammering down from our accommodation, and it would keep us awake so I can’t imagine what it would be like to be in it. I’d arrive on set and people hadn’t slept and it would really grind on everyone physically. Which is terrible when the challenges involve a lot of endurance tests. I think our longest one went for over six hours. All things considered, it’s incredible what people can do.”
To paint an even clearer picture of Upolu, the location, it is home to the word’s smallest spiders. During a 2009 tsunami twenty villages on Upolu’s south side were reportedly destroyed. The US version of the show has Upolu as the most used location in it’s history, so fans should be somewhat familiar with the location. The rules strictly dictate that all resources within the camp (aside from the basics) must be sourced from the location itself, and there is absolutely no contact from anyone not involved in the game.
“The camera crews are on the beach 24/7, but there’s very little direct contact between contestants and crew and certainly no meaningful interaction. I’m the only one who had anything meaningful to chat to them about. But without being involved in the day-to-day I’m fascinated to see what it was like on the beach. It was a crazy two months of filming, way harder than we though it would be, so I want to see how it played out for the contestants,” says LaPaglia.
While the US show certain has it’s fair share of ‘game-players’, as well as an innate feel for the drama of the game, LaPaglia says we should expect the Australian version to be quite different. “Keep in mind that the US version has evolved considerably over the 16 years it’s been on air. In the very first season, it was like it was a documentary, but now it’s a high octane, gladiatorial type of competition. A lot of contestants compete on that show very strategically, but in this first season, while there are a couple of students of the show, one of the really interesting elements is watching people work out the game as they go. It’s every bit as competitive, every 2 days someone leaves and that can consume you mentally. There’s a lot of humanity in this season.”
It seems almost obscene considering that the show exists in over 50 countries, that Australia has had our very own version return to screens sooner. Of course, the nature of these things is that the audience and social media will take the show wherever it’s set to go, but in LaPaglia’s own words “we’re picking up some aspects of the US show, but the Australian version will be it’s own beast.”
Australian Survivor will debut this Sunday, 21 August at 7.30pm on Channel 10.
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