What is Survivor?

Version 0.99. Last updated on 02/02/2003

Survivor is a "reality" game show that has been on in the U.S. for many seasons. The basic premise of the show is to take 16 people to a remote location (a deserted island in the first season, the Australian Outback in the second season, etc.) carrying only minimal equipment, no food or water, and leave them there for about 40 days to fend for themselves. While "stranded", the 16 contestents are divided up into 2 "tribes" of 8 people each. In each episode, the tribes choose one member to compete against a member from the other tribe in a "challenge". Challenges can range from swimming to obstacle courses to tests of endurance. Whichever tribes' contestent wins the challenge gets a "luxury item", which can be pretty much anything, from fire (matches) to a call home. The tribes also compete as a group in another challenge. The winning tribe of this challenge gets "immunity", and the other tribe must vote off one of its members (vote them off the island, or basically kick them off the show). The object of the game is to be the last person voted off the island. The eventual winner gets $1,000,000. (Everyone else (well, actually the winner too) gets to do a bunch of talk shows, sometimes getting roles in TV series or movies, and generally annoy the rest of us forever because they never go away!)

After the 8th show, the two tribes are combined into one 8-person tribe. Now instead of a tribe getting immunity from being voted off, all of the contestants compete in challenges to get immunity for themselves from being voted off. At the end of the show, when there are only two contestants left, nobody gets immunity, and all of the contestants that were previously voted off come back and cast their votes to determine which of the final two contestants wins.

The way that Survivor ends up working is the individuals in a tribe form alliances to try to vote the others in the tribe off before they themselves get voted off. This can lead to a lot of backstabbing and tension in the tribe, which is what makes the show so interesting. For more information on Survivor, visit the Official Survivor Web Site.

I am basing Anime Survivor on the first season of Survivor in the U.S. The Ranma and Tenchi tribes will be performing the same challenges as the tribes on the first season of Survivor.