"Survivor" reality show flops

Hi!

How do you think TV would have developed if the first "Survivor" flopped and as a result reality shows never get off the ground? What type of programming would you see? We certainly wouldn't have reality channels at the very least.

Thanks in advance,

ACG
 
Survivor flopping wouldn't have changed a thing. Reality TV was still going to take off; just look at Big Brother in Britain, which debuted around the same time. It was really a matter of when a network executive was going to stumble upon a winning formula for a reality show, not if. To kill reality TV, you'd have to go at least all the way back to The Real World on MTV in 1992. That was the show that pretty much invented modern reality TV as we know it. Arguably, you'd have to go all the way back to the '70s and prevent An American Family and the Chuck Barris shows (The Gong Show, The Newlywed Game, etc.) from ever airing. Survivor didn't invent reality TV, it just proved that there was a huge audience for it.
 
Well Expedition Robinson on Swedish television would still have been aired prior to Survivor in the US so given the popularity of the concept all over the world something similar will eventually have to be aired again in the States aswell, for as long as people are willing to make easy money on a proven concept.

BTW Big Brother is Dutch
 

Thande

Donor
They tried to export Survivor to Britain (around the same time as Big Brother took off) and it flopped here...
 
Survivor flopped here too, it seems that Australian's are laid-back and cooperative, not wound-up and competitive in tough situations. Who wants to watch a group of people say 'lets have lunch now, and we'll get together than fix that thing after our afternoon nap'? Apparently backbiting and conniving is more entertaining, hence the success of the US version here.
 
Well Expedition Robinson on Swedish television would still have been aired prior to Survivor in the US so given the popularity of the concept all over the world something similar will eventually have to be aired again in the States aswell, for as long as people are willing to make easy money on a proven concept.

The Swedish Robinson could easily have been taken of air after the first episode. It was a fairly big scandal/debate at the time when it was seen as bullying TV and one of the contestants commited suicide. It's a nifty pod in it self.
 
People may be a bit more likely to listen to Michael Eisner (who got Disney not to do Survivor) which means Disney might do one of his bad ideas...
 
The Swedish Robinson could easily have been taken of air after the first episode. It was a fairly big scandal/debate at the time when it was seen as bullying TV and one of the contestants commited suicide. It's a nifty pod in it self.

That, I think, would be a much better way to bring down reality TV than to have Survivor or Big Brother simply flop. Have several particularly nasty scandals and controversies on multiple shows -- contestants doing physical harm to one another/themselves, well-substantiated allegations of vote rigging and other forms of executive meddling -- fundamentally discredit the format, much like the quiz show scandals in the '50s did for that genre. And even then, you've only knocked it out for twenty years at most -- just look at how quiz shows rebounded in the '70s. In my opinion, it was only a matter of time before reality TV exploded the way it did over the last decade. I'm surprised that it didn't kick off the moment network executives saw the 10+ million ratings for An American Family back in the '70s.
 
One of the American reality TV shows had an obvious product plant by GM. All of a sudden ... a Pontiac Aztek shows up on the deserted island beach or wherever. Nevermind that the Pontiac Aztek was a horrible flop in the US. Think handheld vacuum cleaner with body cladding. It was marketed as an "adventure" vehicle, with tent add-ons &c., so I guess GM marketers thought it'd sell well with the Survivor set. But putting the freakin' thing on the supposedly "abandoned island" and have some buff guy feign enthusiasm? Whatever.
 
So if Survivor flops, what takes it's place? Big brother always seemed to be a more Adult oriented show, were as Survivor is more a Family show. After Survivor, I think American Idol (which I believe is a clone of Pop Idol in Britian, but I'm not sure) would be the most sucsessful family-oriented reality show.

And if thats the case, we would probably see more 'Talent Based' reality shows, than 'Ima Gonna Stab You Inda Back' reality shows. Perhaps we hear from Susan Boyle earlier?:rolleyes:
 
Too bad it didn't flop. It's nothing but a bunch of yuppies on a bad vacation. And if it were really real, some of the contestants would simply kill others.
 
Oh, and I'm likely the only one on this entire site who has never watched one of those so-called reality TV shows. I have more than enough reality from my own life, thank you very much.
 
Wouldn't they also need to kill Cops?
That's different. Anyway, there was at least one live taped cop show on radio! Didn't really work too well, sounded sort of like Dragnet but live. So the idea'd kind of been around for a while.

Could American Gladiators have been an inspiration for Survivor?

Edit: Different as in, actual real life, not a staged setting to get a bunch of chosen people to engage in various contests. (Do i have that right? Reality TV not my thing.) Sounds to me only slightly more real than pro wrestling.
 
That's different. Anyway, there was at least one live taped cop show on radio! Didn't really work too well, sounded sort of like Dragnet but live. So the idea'd kind of been around for a while.

Could American Gladiators have been an inspiration for Survivor?

Edit: Different as in, actual real life, not a staged setting to get a bunch of chosen people to engage in various contests. (Do i have that right? Reality TV not my thing.) Sounds to me only slightly more real than pro wrestling.

I would agree with that, since Cops! is a different sort of show than Survivor, based on format and style. if you were to watch the two one after another, I think thier would be little comparision between them, probably none at all.
 
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