As always, if you want on or off the ping list, FReepmail me.
1 day, 5 Hours, 40 Minutes (+/-) till Survivor: Thailand!
Well fellow FReepers, while searching the websites I came across this little tidbit of an interview with Mark Burnett and thought I would pass it along. Some interesting reading while we are waiting for the show to start. Enjoy.
.
Burnett Teases Twists on Thursday’s ‘Survivor’
Tue, Sep 17, 2002 06:40 PM PDT
by Kate O'Hare
Zap2it
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - When “Survivor: Thailand,” the fifth installment of the popular reality series, launches on Thursday, Sept. 19 on CBS, things start off quite differently for the 16 castaways stranded on an island off the southeast coast of Thailand.
“The first five to eight minutes are a very new beginning to the show, which includes the make-up of the tribes,” says executive producer Mark Burnett. “In fact, the way the tribes are even chosen is a very new way of doing it.”
“As you can see from the promos, it looks like it could be split down gender lines.”
Asked if those CBS commercials are accurate, Burnett says, “Uh, no. I’m giving you something huge. You asked me, and I told you the truth, which is, in fact, the tribes are not split along gender lines.”
In another “Survivor” first, series host Jeff Probst revealed to reporters that a confrontation among the castaways got physical. Burnett elaborates, saying, “There was some high tension running between certain testosterones, let’s say that.”
Pressed for details, Burnett revealed that the confrontation -- which will be seen in episode three -- took place during one of the show’s contests.
“What went down was,” Burnett says, “there was a situation where, for the first time, we allowed physical contact in a challenge, and it got a little out of hand. Jeff started feeling like he was refereeing the NFL, I think.”
“We’ve never allowed a contest to include any physicality, and we thought, ‘Let’s see what happens.’ You know what, tensions run really high when big rewards or immunity are at stake, and you’ve got a bunch of guys with too much testosterone running around. It makes good TV, though, that’s the good thing about it.”
“Jeff was able to tone things down by yelling at them. I’m trying to think of the words he used. I think the words he used were, ‘I’m beginning to sound like a broken record here, guys, chill out.'”
Burnett also emphasizes that getting on Probst’s wrong side is not a good thing. “Jeff is in charge during the game. He’s not somebody you want to screw with, because he has a lot of power in the game. You don’t want to mess with Jeff. He’s totally, down-the-line fair on everything he does.”
“When people step over the line, it becomes annoying, and they’re not doing themselves any favors, because remember, everyone’s out for themselves in ‘Survivor.’ They’re playing the game as a team or a tribe, but really they’re out for themselves. So every behavior that’s exhibited that could be looked at as negative, doesn’t do you any favors when it comes to who gets a million dollars.”
Declining to reveal details of the finale (which airs in mid-December), Burnett says, “That’s something I’ve things in mind for … maybe in a few weeks.”
And those expecting revelations about contestant Brian Heidik’s past as a soft-core-porn actor will be disappointed. Although Burnett and “the appropriate people at CBS” knew about his past -- and warned him that it would likely come out -- Heidik chose not to reveal it to his fellow contestants.
As to the future, while “Survivor” has thus far been a warm-weather phenomenon, that’s no guarantee of endless summer. “Regarding cold weather,” said Burnett, “don’t give up so easily. I joke around, saying, ‘Yeah, it’s the bathing suits,’ but truly, I’m totally considering Tierra del Fuego, which is the southern tip of Patagonia (in Argentina), which is the ends of the Earth.”
“There’s no question we could do something not on an island and not necessarily in a warm climate. I don’t want to go to Antarctica or Greenland, because it’s so cold, but you could go to a place like Patagonia, the southern tip of the Andes. Iceland would be a beautiful location, and so would the Himalayas.”
Well thats all for now.
See ya tomorrow.
