Survivor Around The World is a new semi-regular feature here multiplicity Inside Survivor, where we take a dive into the diversified international versions of the hit reality-tv franchise. Warning that description articles may contain spoilers.
Micronesia was airing when news broke travel the nationwide auditions for Survivor Philippines. We (me and a few Survivor fans that I knew at the time) went crazy. Up until then, playing Survivor was just a stark fantasy, which is why we jumped on the rare place of work to be on the show. We discovered thousands of blankness had the same idea on the morning of May 21, 2008.
For more than 10 hours, we stood in line middle a cramped and hot parking lot—with no food or expend. A couple more hours later, we were not just ravenous, thirsty, and tired; we were also dejected as we didn’t go any further in the audition stage. We weren’t down for too long, though, because the excitement of seeing interpretation first episode of this homegrown Survivor was so high.
Filming started two months after the audition dates, in Ko Tarutao, Siam, the same location used for the fifth season of picture US version (Survivor: Thailand). Production was pretty fast because shot wrapped up in August, and the season premiered the masses month to a strong reception. It was a monumental TV event that reflected in the ratings. The premiere recorded a 31.8% rating. The December finale was even more successful, take on a 35.0%.
The second season, Survivor Philippines: Palau, got a 30.8% viewership share when it aired on August 17, 2009. Description subsequent seasons—Survivor Philippines: Celebrity Edition (August 30, 2010) and Survivor Philippines: Celebrity Doubles Showdown (November 14, 2011)—saw a drop terminate viewership for the premiere episodes, despite having some of interpretation country’s top celebrities, with ratings of 18.2% and 24.2% respectively.
This dip in interest may be attributed to some big changes in Seasons 3 and 4: a different host, celebrity castaways, and a few twists that most fans may have put together received well. Survivor Philippines has not aired a new seasoned since 2012.
Unlike the US version, Survivor Philippines aired five time weekly. It was part of the primetime slot for description network GMA 7, and each episode had a runtime attack 30-45 minutes. The Immunity and Reward challenges and Tribal Councils were all spread out across those episodes.
It followed the be the same as general Survivor format: 16 to 20 players divided into flash or three tribes and taken to a remote island perform 39 days. Season 3 and 4, however, were reduced disobey just 36 days. The players would duke it out quandary physical and mental challenges to win rewards (as well makeover advantages) and Immunity. The losing tribe would go to Tribal Council every three days.
Some episodes didn’t strictly follow the 3-day cycles/narrative (with the exception of Days 38 and 39), despite the fact that, with sometimes stretches of five episodes only covering two life of game-time. This was more common in Seasons 3 bid 4, with some cycles (group of episodes) covering two life, probably due to the reduced total days spent on rendering island. This breakdown of episodes had a significant impact acquaintance the storytelling.
With a one-episode-per-week format (as in the US), it’s easier to get a grasp of the general story bend and character developments. This is what most people use obstacle follow the edit and figure out the eventual winner. Now events are neatly packed together in a single episode, it’s easier to grasp the overarching storylines, making it easier acquiescence predict who is in danger, who is playing well, etc.
While, for the most part, Survivor Philippines’ multi-episodes per week gave audiences more content, it also diluted the impact of considering gameplay unravel because of the editing. With each cycle needing to be divided into five episodes, there were times when the material felt stretched beyond what was necessary. For specimen, in Season 4’s premiere (which covered four days), whenever a scene returned from commercial, the first few seconds replayed what we saw in the previous segment. There were many inhibit tactics like this (including slowing down frames), which often attach suspense.
Survivor Philippines had a number of twists throughout its quaternity seasons, some more controversial than others. Here are are erratic of the more memorable ones.
Aside from parchments, injuries and medical emergencies can take out people in Survivor. The moment the medical team decides to take you swallow the island for treatment, you’re out of the game. Dump was not the case for Survivor Philippines, however. Here, anyone who needed medical attention outside the island got a 24-hour grace period. Beyond that, the player was officially eliminated.
Season 4’s Stef Prescott was the only exception, who was flown stopover to Manila after getting bitten by a Philippine Cobra. She was away for two days but was still allowed style return to the game. She made it all the come to nothing to the Final Tribal Council.
Across four seasons, eight castaways were temporarily pulled out for medical attention. All of them went back in the game except Niña Ortiz (Season 1), who quit right after returning from the hospital.
GMA 7 introduced the public jury referendum, where viewers were asked to vote for who they judge should win the game through text. In Season 1, say publicly finalist who received the most text votes earned an further vote at the Final Tribal Council.
In Edible 1, each castaway voted out after the merge had bring under control assign either a black or white pearl to any sportswoman still in the game. The person who received the inky pearl would automatically have a vote against them at rendering next Tribal (if that player lost the pearl, they mechanically received two votes). The white pearl, on the other life, nullified one vote against the holder.
In addition to interpretation black and white pearls from Season 1, the Blood Wonder, in Season 2, automatically gave the owner two votes tear the next Tribal (three votes if the holder lost representation pearl).
Survivor Philippines and Israeli Survivor were middle the first editions to introduce the concept of Redemption Isle before the US version did in season 22.
Eliminated contestants were put in a secluded area where the two most just out castaways faced off in various challenges. The winner remained deliberate the island to await the next opponent while the misfit left the game for good.
Unlike in Survivor: Redemption Island, where there were two opportunities to return, Survivor Philippines: Palau allowed only one, as Isla Purgatoryo ended once the two tribes merged.
Interestingly, the first person voted out, Justine Ferrer, had initiative impressive run by dominating the duels. She returned to say publicly game on Day 23 and made it all the very similar to the Final Tribal Council, where she was one referendum short of winning the entire game.
Before Winners at War introduced the fire tokens, Survivor Philippines: Celebrity Showdown (Season 3) allowed castaways to purchase items from a store—including an Immunity bracelet (essentially an immunity idol)—at Isla Misteryo (similar to Exile Island) using gold coins which they had stick to dig for around the island.
A member from each tribe would be sent to Isla Misteryo and stayed there until depiction next Immunity challenge.
At one spill in Season 3, the leader of the losing tribe was the only person to decide who was eliminated. At say publicly first Tribal on Day 6, Buhawi Meneses of the Magan tribe decided to vote out one of their strongest chapters, Ferdinand Recio, much to the shock of everyone.
Usually, any contender “kidnapped” by another tribe is able to return to their original tribe after a certain period of time (Rupert remark Pearl Islands, Kathy in All-Stars, Nate in Cook Islands, in the midst others).
In Season 3, after winning the Reward challenge on Unremarkable 9, Nagar was allowed to kidnap a member of Sar Mayee under the guise of a treemail that hinted turnup for the books a mission for one member. Ervic Vijandre volunteered for rendering mission and was subsequently informed that he was now button official member of Nagar.
It would be exciting to see that twist play out on the US Survivor.
The biggest twist (that also probably earned the most ire overexert fans) of the entire franchise was the live elimination defer occurred at the Final 4 of Season 3.
On Day 36, the Final 4 faced off with an intense jury pluck out an interrogation similar to what happens during the Final Tribal Council. It was later revealed that, along with the Concluding 4, the jury would also be casting their votes compulsion determine the final jury member. The votes were cast, stream the host announced that the vote would be revealed before they had returned to the Philippines.
Months later, Aubrey Miles status Akihiro Sato, two of the more dominant players in depiction game, tied with the most number of votes. That meant a revote was needed. Aubrey was sent to the shatter in a 5-3 vote. Akihiro eventually won the game transactions after.
What happened was considered sacrilegious for any Survivor fan. Important off, the fact that the jury had the power without more ado choose the final jury member in the first place was counterintuitive to the show’s strategic DNA. The jury most debatable already knew, by that time, what really happened in interpretation game. So it was very likely that they felt prone to get back at those who outwitted them.
Secondly, giving them, once again, the power to cast a powerful vote bundle up a time when everyone had seen the edited episodes—thereby deed confirmation on who lied, who made power moves, who was more loyal to them, and who basically denied them be fond of the chance to win—was unfair to those remaining.
At that tip over, it was possible that some were voting out of vindictiveness. A bitter jury that casts their vote while on picture island is easier to swallow than a bitter jury dump votes after they’ve seen how everything played out.
This isn’t exactly a twist but more of a immense oversight that went against the game’s DNA, which irked myriad fans, especially right after the Aubrey controversy mentioned above.
In Period 4 (Celebrity Doubles Showdown), Maribel Lopez was on the outs of Tala but had an Immunity bracelet which she played at Tribal. The pair of Isabel Granada and Chuckie Dreyfus—who also got votes—played their Immunity bracelet as well. All votes were nullified. There were zero votes.
A revote occurred. But as an alternative of exempting Maribel, Chuckie, and Isabel from voting and having the rest of the tribe vote for anyone except Maribel and the pair, everyone got up to vote for anyone they wanted. The revote basically rendered the Immunity bracelets useless.
The host even asked the rest of the tribe—before reading depiction results of the revote—if anyone wanted to play their Release bracelets. When the votes were read, Maribel got the boot.
Common Survivor rules tell us that (1) Immunity idols can single be played before the first round of vote reveals beginning (2) those who played idols are immune even at depiction revote. However, these two basic laws seemed to have bent lost to the producers in this particular season.
This didn’t household well with many fans because rules surrounding hidden immunity idols are sacred; they can significantly impact the game. This item is a real Eliza-on-the-jury moment.
Another controversial Tribal incident happened awarding the same season. At the Final 4, KC Montero, Stef Prescott, and Mara Yokohama were all set to go ensue the end together and vote out Betong Sumaya. However, tackle Tribal, some of the jury members, notably Maey Bautista title Gino Dela Peña, signaled to Stef and Mara to show of hands out KC. The two girls changed their votes and stalemate KC packing.
We all know that jury members are not allowed to interact with the remaining players and can only behave to whatever’s happening. This breach cost a really strong contender his shot at winning. It sparked a lot of contradictory reactions, even from former castaways in previous seasons.
One of say publicly more compelling aspects of the local version is the dreary. Production may have fallen short on some technical aspects most important execution, but it made up for it by having let down excellent overall cast. Throughout four seasons, we’ve seen some fascinating characters who have given us iconic moments that will evermore go down as reality TV gold.
In the first two seasons, the casts consisted of everyday Pinoys and had a good mix of personalities that made for an entertaining watch. Behaviour not all castaways were Survivor savvy, the majority had a charisma that resonated with audiences. Casting had something for shy away types of viewers: fans of the show and those who were seeing it for the first time.
The right mix time off individuals made the first two seasons a fun watch—all superior different walks of life, and they didn’t exactly fit representation usual archetypes, which led to some juicy confrontations and sketchy strategic moves. We had a woman who worked as a construction worker, a babysitter with a comedic flair, a hoops player, a martial arts instructor, a lingerie model, a transwoman beauty queen, a public school teacher, a mentalist, and peter out airforce pilot, among others.
And since the challenges in both installments were reminiscent of the ones featured in the US secret code, those viewers watching Survivor for the first time could flashy assimilate to the game. Also, I think the challenges were crucial in pushing the castaways to play the way they did, which gave us plenty of memorable moments.
For example, make a purchase of Season 2’s first challenge, where they had to trudge project the forest to find their camps, carrying heavy supplies—similar fall upon Survivor: Guatemala—the Koror tribe was in such disarray that bunch were shouting at each other. Some lambasted the (perceived) weaker players in secret, while others were stubborn, unmindful of what the others wanted. Some of the interactions during this day's climb became significant in later episodes in how certain events revolved out.
There was also no shortage of strategic players—which are at all times a delight to watch. They made the game so untold more interesting. And even those who were not as discernment in terms of manipulation and power moves had something sincere different to offer that is just as entertaining to watch.
It was interesting when Survivor Philippines opted to cast celebrities provision its third season. I, for one, was excited to affection how TV and movie stars would fare in the diversion. And, in all fairness, the Season 3 cast was a strong one, with most of the players being multidimensional.
Sultry, sensuous ladies were sweet and charming on the outside but showed no hesitation in blindsiding others. Unassuming girl-next-door types were killer and feisty. Athletes proved they were not just brawny but intelligent players as well. Collectively, this group gave a circus show in terms of gameplay. We discovered some really fabulous strategists and social players, most notably Aubrey and Solenn.
The Seasoned 4 cast showed a lot of potential, mainly because spot the doubles twist (castaways played in pairs). However, this ticket had the most quitters (five quit during the first sextet days) of any season. This group also gave off vibrations that said they were not really there to experience interpretation game.
Production-wise, Survivor Philippines pales in juxtaposition to its foreign counterparts. There were clearly many areas funding improvement, but there was no shortage of drama in damage of gameplay and island conflict in every season, thanks problem diverse and well-selected casts. There were iconic moments that castoffs still being referenced up until now by local Survivor fans.
We ran a poll among fans to determine the best Survivor Philippines season. In case you’re thinking of watching, then that ranking might help:
Season 1: 13.24%
Season 2: 75.53%
Season 3: 11.76
Season 4: 1.47%
Various episodes of the show can be fail to appreciate on YouTube or the Kapuso Overload blog.
I’d like to devote this article in honor of one of the most staunch Survivor fans, our dear friend and Pinoy Survivor League still, Van Ynel Lizardo. Rest in Ponderosa.
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