Wednesday, May 31, 2000

CBS' maneuvers to be a 'Survivor'

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Network hopes it has a ratings treasure

        Gilligan's Island, this isn't.

        There's no movie star, Mary Ann, Skipper and his mate or Lovey and Thurston Howell III.

THE 16 PARTICIPANTS IN SURVIVOR RANGE IN AGE FROM 22 TO 72. | ZOOM |

        But the 16 people of CBS' Survivor on remote Pulau Tiga, off the coast of Borneo, do include a retired CEO, biochemist, neurologist, river guide, truck driver and a former Navy SEAL.

        They're braving snakes, rats, mosquitoes and who-knows-what else in hopes of winning $1 million, CBS' prize for the last survivor left on the South China Sea island. CBS' low-cost 13-week series will be followed by two more voyeuristic summer series, PBS' 1900 House (June 12-July 3) and CBS' Big Brother (July 6-Sept. 30).

        TV executives are hoping American viewers get as hooked on watching the Survivors as they did on Gilligan.

        “People will be rooting for certain people, just like in any competition,” says Leslie Moonves, CBS Television president.

        “By necessity, by human nature, there are people who you are going to like, and people you're not going to like,” he says.

        The campers, ages 22 to 72, were chosen by the network from more than 6,000 applicants. Ten camera crews filmed them around-the-clock as they hunted, fished, built shelters and argued.

ON THE AIR

What: Survivor When: 8-9 p.m. today Where: Channels 12, 7

        Every three days, the group met and voted to throw one person off the tropical island.

        “It's going to be pretty compelling television,” predicts Finneytown native Randall Einhorn, 36, an Australian-based cinematographer who spent seven weeks shooting Survivor.

        “People are stripped to their barest, their true essence, trying to live day-to-day with each other and survive. (Survivor) is interesting people doing something extraordinary, with the added stress of knowing one person will be voted off every three days,” says Mr. Einhorn, owner of Adventure Film Co., which has shot the Discovery Channel's four Eco-Challenge endurance competitions.

        Tonight's premiere will show how the 16 campers arrived on the island the hard way. They were forced to paddle several hours on a bamboo raft from a boat in the South China Sea. On the island, they were divided into two eight-person camps.

PULAU TIGA IS OFF THE COAST OF BORNEO IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA | ZOOM |

        “We filmed whatever was happening on the beach — spear-fishing, or trying to hunt whatever they could find to eat, or gathering palm branches and leaves to make shelter,” says the 1982 Finneytown High School graduate.

        Some of them dined on the island's most plentiful inhabitant: rats.

        “It's fascinating to see what people will do to survive,” Mr. Moonves says. “It's fascinating to see what people will NOT do to survive.”

        It's also fascinating to see what networks will do to survive. Survivor, a concept imported from Sweden, costs about one-third of the price of a network sitcom. It's an economical way to provide original summer programming against reruns and leftover episodes of canceled series.

        Even if it doesn't blow away the competition, like ABC's Who Wants to be a Millionaire two-week test last August, CBS already has come out ahead. Survivor has been fully sponsored by eight companies.

        “No matter what the ratings are, we're still going to make money on it,” he says. If ratings are huge, CBS plans another Survivor early next year, he says.

        About half-way through Survivor, CBS will premiere Big Brother, a reality drama similar to MTV's Real World.

        Ten strangers will live in an 1,800-square-foot house in Studio City, Calif., outfitted with 28 cameras and 60 microphones.

        Similar Big Brother series in Europe have drawn near Millionaire-sized ratings — 53 percent of all viewers in Holland, and 47 percent of all viewers in Spain.

        During the three-month stay in the Big Brother house, the group will gather bi-weekly and nominate two colleagues for expulsion. But the actual decision will be made by viewers voting via phone. (The final occupant will be determined on Sept. 30, against NBC's Summer Olympics.)

        The Big Brother gang must live without a computer, TV, radio, newspaper, phone or any contact from the outside.

        The family in PBS' 1900 House also had to cope for three months without a computer, TV, radio, newspaper, phone.

        And no electricity!

        Paul and Joyce Bowler, and their four children, last year lived in a suburban London home with gas lamps and a coal oven. They wore period clothing and confined themselves to foods and products available 100 years ago.

        Their experience, chronicled in a four-part series, drew big ratings in England last year. Producer Beth Hoppe called it the “Real World meets real history.”

        These summer series should succeed, Mr. Moonves says, because they “appeal to the voyeurist in us all ... We watch and think: "How would I react, and what would it be like for me, if I were in that situation?'”

        In addition to saving a few bucks, Mr. Moonves says Survivor and Big Brother should attract a younger audience to CBS. (Of course, the same was said about Grapevine, a February comedy canceled two weeks ago.)

        Mr. Moonves points to the success of MTV's Real World, though it has only a small cult following. ABC's Making the Band reality series about forming a singing group was canceled May 16 after failing to crack Nielsen's top 100 this season.

        American viewers will fall in love with the Survivors, predicts Mr. Einhorn, who slept in a hammock in the production base camp on the other side of the island, where employees could eat real food. (One night a helicopter delivered McDonald's Big Macs and fries. “It was by no means hot, but it was a Big Mac!”)

        “I think people will identify with certain characters, and want to come back next week and see what the characters are doing. It's very emotional.

        “And you're wondering who's going to be voted off the island,” he continues. “Even all the camera operators were talking about who's going to go next, and trying to guess what would happen.”

       

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