Archive > Survivor: Gabon - Earth's Last Eden
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marigold:
Survivor News:
The Q Scores Company Reports Fans of CBS’ “Survivor” Franchise Have the Strongest Emotional Connection of Any Prime-Time Series Returning This Fall
Compelling Dramatic Formats Account for “Survivor’s” Appeal
BUSINESS WIRE
As American television viewers gear up for the new fall prime-time season, major broadcast networks will be anticipating whether its returning programs will pull ahead of competitors or fall flat. For the series that will anchor prime-time schedules this fall, two lingering questions remain: 1) Is the show coming back with enough viewer momentum, and 2) Will the strength of last season’s commitment keep viewers tuned-in on a regular basis? New data from leading market research company Marketing Evaluations, Inc., The Q Scores Company, reveals a unique way of measuring viewer loyalty and the ongoing commitment to a program. The latest TVQ results indicate that fans of the “Survivor” franchise have the strongest emotional attachment of any returning series going into the fall 2008 season.
“What we are seeing is that viewers feel emotionally connected to the ‘Survivor’ franchise, due to its similarity to scripted dramas with compelling stories,” says Henry Schafer, executive vice president of Marketing Evaluations, Inc., The Q Scores Company. He adds, “‘Survivor’s’ unusually long run is a direct result of its ability to stay fresh with relatable participants; generating strong loyalty and a high commitment to viewership going into the fall. That’s a winning recipe for long-term legs.”
Impact Q (“IQ Index”)
Q Scores data is now enhanced with a new dimension for measuring viewer loyalty, called Impact Q or the “IQ Index.” This measurement, based on likeability and viewing frequency, is an indicator of the program’s capacity to satisfy key viewers during the season. The higher the index the stronger the satisfaction level.
Emotional Attachment Index
The “Emotional Attachment Index” is a new measurement added during this past season, which indicates the commitment that key viewers have to continue watching a show into the future. The higher the index the stronger the emotional attachment going into the new television season.
Top 20 Prime-Time Shows Coming Back for Fall 2008
Among Adults 18-49
Ranked by "Emotional Attachment"
(Average = 100 Index)
NETWORK ADULTS 18-49 SEASON-TO-DATE AVERAGES EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENT INDEX - IQ INDEX
CBS * SURVIVOR: MICRONESIA 177 157
NBC ** HEROES 153 164
FOX *** HOUSE 149 179
CBS * CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION 147 175
CBS * SURVIVOR: CHINA 145 147
ABC **** GREY'S ANATOMY 142 160
CBS * CRIMINAL MINDS 138 151
CW ***** SUPERNATURAL 135 140
CBS * NCIS 132 149
NBC ** NBC SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL 132 114
ABC **** DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES 130 142
CBS * THE UNIT 128 140
CBS * GHOST WHISPERER 127 137
CBS * WITHOUT A TRACE 125 139
NBC ** LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT 124 147
ABC **** BROTHERS & SISTERS 124 130
NBC ** THE OFFICE 123 151
FOX *** PRISON BREAK 122 137
NBC ** LIFE 122 95
NBC ** ER 120 135
Link: http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20080917005306&newsLang=en
RealityFreakWill:
Can someone post pictures of the Gabon cast group and also the two tribes? Thanks in advance...I need them for myspace, lol!
puddin:
MSNBC.com
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'Survivor' will shine spotlight on pristine Gabon
West African nation hoping to lure eco-tourists through exposure on show
COMMENTARY
By Andy Dehnart
MSNBC contributor
updated 6:04 p.m. ET, Sun., Sept. 21, 2008
Editor's Note: Msnbc.com contributor Andy Dehnart traveled to the West African nation of Gabon this summer and interviewed "Survivor" cast, crew and others as the show was setting up for its new season.
When it debuted at the turn of the century, the CBS reality competition series “Survivor” ushered in an era where appearing on television resulted in fame and fortune for unknown, everyday people.
Now, as the show debuts its 17th season on Sept. 25, the series will play a role in the economic future of a little-known African nation where, for 39 days this summer, 18 Americans battled each other and the elements for $1 million.
Gabon, which gained independence from France 48 years ago, is located to the west of the Republic of Congo and is bordered on the north by Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon. Its distinct topography consists of open savanna, which is marked by hills and formations that resemble natural amphitheaters, and dense patches of rainforest, from which wildlife, including forest elephants, venture forth at daybreak and dusk.
The show's presence in Gabon comes at a critical moment for the country, which just six years ago created a system of national parks to protect its largely untouched landscape. That national beauty is reflected in the tagline for “Survivor: Gabon,” “Earth's Last Eden.” Now, the Gabonese government — one of Africa's most rich and stable, thanks to oil and other reserves of natural resources — needs to find ways to make that protected land profitable, introducing ecotourism in place of logging.
As much as “Survivor” is part of that transformation, location is also critical to “Survivor.” With the exception of two seasons filmed in Palau and three seasons filmed in Panama, the production has moved to an entirely new place every year, and it's in part due to these spectacular locations that the show has remained popular.
The series’ first-season finale was watched by more than 51 million people — a total Fox's enormous hit “American Idol” has never even approached. While the CBS series’ ratings have eroded in the eight years since then, both seasons that aired last year were among the top 20 shows in the country.
Also over that time, the “survival” elements of the game — finding food and water, building shelter — have been minimized in favor of the social game component. The winning contestant receives $1 million not for surviving the elements, but for outwitting, outlasting and outplaying his fellow competitors, as the show's logo says. Episodes now focus largely on interpersonal relationships and strategy.
But the locations still give each season a visual identity and inform the competitions constructed by producers, never mind presenting actual survival challenges for the contestants, from torrential downpours to swarming insects.
Besides making life difficult for the contestants, the locations presents challenges for the actual production itself, which doesn't always tape in such remote locations. This season, those well-publicized issues came from Gabon's isolation and lack of infrastructure, which also present challenges for its development of a tourism-based economy.
Mitigating the show’s impact on the land
Of course, “Survivor” is not just 18 people competing for a prize. It involves a massive crew, from camera operators to producers, cooks to grips, carpenters to housekeepers. They live and work out of a space known as base camp, which in Gabon was established close to the Atlantic Ocean, a two-hour boat ride south from Libreville, the country's capital and only major city.
The sand-covered area was a mix of cargo shipping containers, tents, and prefab trailers, with washing machines and dryers running all day in one tent and large tanks sitting on the camp outskirts. It had a surprising amount of infrastructure, from running water and functional bathrooms to wireless Internet access, all necessary to house and feed hundreds of crew members, never mind support the TV show's production over its 39 days.
None of this will ever appear on TV or be visible to the contestants, whose isolated camps were a half-hour to an hour away by car along pre-existing roads that, despite being bumpy, were actually improved by the production crew.
Three days before the game officially began in June, in the large catering tent that sheltered folding tables and chairs where the crew ate their meals, executive producer Doug McCallie told assembled crew members that besides creating a reality television show, “there's something more that we're doing when we come to these places.”
In Gabon, that “something more” happened in part because of Wildlife Conservation Society field biologist Dr. Lee White, who has worked that country for 20 years and has served as a liaison to the production. His work helped convince Gabon President Omar Bongo to create 13 national parks, an act that required paying logging companies more than $30 million but left more than 10 percent of the country protected.
White told the crew they would be “telling the world about the treasures of Gabon ... a country that's been discovered by biologists in the last 10 years” and where “people have evolved in these forests.”
Earlier that day, White said that the base camp's location itself was inhabited up until about 20 years ago, and on and off “for the last 10,000 years or so.”
“(The show is) setting up in a place that has been inhabited actually over many generations and even over hundreds and perhaps even thousands of years,” White said.
“Survivor” will impact the landscape, but not significantly. “It'll take a while for the campsites to grow back,” White said, noting that grass is the main plant that will have to regrow. “They haven't cut any forest to do the show, but there's some erosion to deal with, and so on.”
Gabon's unique topography is actually affected by its inhabitants. “Even though this is a remote, pristine place, there's a long tradition of people living there,” White said. “The fact that we have a mix of forest and savanna is partly due to people. The savanna's grasslands go back about 3,000 years, but they're maintained by fires set by people,” White noted.
Unit production manager Dick Beckett, who is on location for five or six months, acknowledged that while “(the show has) a big footprint ... whatever we bring in, we take out,” Beckett said. “We will not be leaving anything behind — and if we leave it behind as a (donation), it's probably timber that goes to the local villages. In the past, we've built additions to local schools. We've tended to make contributions to communities.”
The production utilizes and shares local resources — if necessary, the show has access to the president's private military hospital. While around 80 shipping containers and 16 tons of air freight were brought in — everything from flat-pack cabins and offices to appliances, never mind the TV production equipment — many supplies are purchased locally, from food to five kilometers of PVC pipe and 15 kilometers of electrical cable.
More significant will be the impact the series will have on the country's economy. “A local labor force is essential,” Beckett said “We just cannot bring in enough people to do the kind of work, especially just the general hard work that people don't often realize (is necessary).”
Tourism wanted, but not too much
But those are short-term jobs, and once the series gives Gabon its biggest platform yet, the long-term changes will come with many challenges. Among those is skepticism from some Gabonese people.
Their reaction to the parks and plans for ecotourism is “somewhat mixed,” White said, “because they've lived in this lush equatorial forest all their lives next to elephants and gorillas, they think of it, to some extent, as being somewhat primitive. Their idea of advancement is moving to the city and getting a job in an air-conditioned office, and so they don't really understand the psychology of these rich, educated people who come from abroad and who get really excited about something they think of as mundane.”
The government is “basically taking a gamble that the national parks will not only protect Gabon's unique nature, but they'll be able to develop some sort of long-term industry around them,” White said. “And finding an industry that will maintain the environment whilst giving people jobs that they can be proud of is a challenge.”
The plan, he said, is “that the parks can act as a pull to attract people in and therefore foreign exchange, and can create jobs in rural areas which, to some extent, have been neglected in Gabon.”
But Gabon isn't looking to become the next Costa Rica, he said. Instead, the nation is “aiming at high-end” travelers and “definitely (doesn't) want to do mass market tourism.” White says Gabon's objective is 100,000 tourists a year by 2015, up from a tourist base that is now practically negligible.
There's a lot to be done to make that happen, but one of the first steps is simply awareness.
“The great thing about ‘Survivor’ is that it will mean that a lot of people around the world are seeing flashes of Gabon and are talking about Gabon,” White said, “and will actually know that Gabon exists.”
Andy Dehnart is a writer who publishes reality blurred, a daily summary of reality TV news. Find him on Facebook.
© 2008 MSNBC Interactive
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26726795/page/2/
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RealityFreakWill:
Group picture
puddin:
MSNBC.com
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'Survivor: Gabon' throws temptations at cast
Exiled contestants can choose luxury, or chance to hunt for immunity idol
COMMENTARY
By Andy Dehnart
MSNBC contributor
updated 4:26 p.m. ET, Tues., Sept. 23, 2008
Since the first season of "Survivor" eight years ago, temptation has always played a pivotal role on the show.
In a game that changes constantly, insecurity fuels the urge to change one's strategy, behavior, or allegiances. Those who go far make those changes smartly and carefully; those who go home follow temptation blindly, making wild decisions and not considering the consequences.
For its 17th season, premiering on CBS Sept. 25, "Survivor" returns to Africa and officially makes temptation its theme. "Survivor Gabon: Earth's Last Eden" has a subtitle that both reflects its physical environment and game.
The landscape of the West African country of Gabon affects this season's twist, which is suggested by its subtitle, "Earth's Last Eden." Besides untouched rainforest and hilly savanna marked only in many places by tire tracks that form bumpy, lonely, makeshift roads, Gabon also has distinct amphitheater-shaped hills. Those hills will host many of the challenges, which have been designed and constructed with the landscape in mind.
More significantly, large parts of the country, particularly those in the newly formed national parks, are pristine and stunning. In other words, it's Eden-like — and as with the central theme of the story of Eden, cast members will be faced with temptation.
Primarily, that comes as part of Exile, which has dropped the "island" this season because it's an open area near a body of water that's surrounded by trees. Those sent to Exile will not automatically search for the hidden immunity idols that became so pivotal to the game last season and lead to a number of stunning blindsides.
Instead, this season's exiled contestants will have a choice: They can opt for a clue that may help them find the all-important hidden immunity idol, or be tempted by "Survivor"-level luxury.
That seems like an obvious, easy choice: temporary comfort or an insurance policy that could keep a player in the running for $1 million.
It's immediate reward versus long-term gain, and for some of the cast members, that might not be an obvious choice.
That's because the 18 people competing for the $1 million are an interesting mix. The vast majority of them are in their 20s, except for Dan, who's 32, and Susie (47), Randy (49), Bob (58), and Gillian (61). They include actors, lawyers, teachers and doctors, and have faced everything from lives of privilege to adversity.
Good vs. evil
While that would seem to set up competition between the older and the younger, lines in the cast will most likely be drawn along the lines of good and evil, to borrow again from this season's subtitle.
As a group, they're relatively evenly divided. There are the arrogant, egotistical cast members who are there to play the game (often ruthlessly, or at least unapologetically), and those who want adventure in their lives yet seem too friendly and kind for a game often built on manipulation and deceit.
Although that oversimplifies and exaggerates the cast's composition, they are very distinctly different, at least in terms of why they're playing the game. Many were recruited by the show's casting producers and didn't apply on their own (personal trainer Matty, jeans salesperson Kelly) while others have been fans since the first season (retired nurse Gillian, who has applied 15 previous times). Some of those who were recruited actually are fans (lawyer Charlie, doctor Marcus). Others are experience junkies, want to challenge themselves, or just want to have fun (high-school teacher Bob).
As always, how those players are organized into tribes is most critical early in the game. Tribal loyalties often determine game play even long after the tribes merge.
This season, instead of being placed into pre-determined tribes by producers, the tribes will select themselves, with each contestant picking the next person to join the tribe. In some respects, they'll be responsible for their own fate as a tribe, and who they select is critical.
In pre-game interviews, nearly all of the 18 cast members revealed that they've formed distinct impressions of one another even though they were not allowed to talk or interact in any way in the days leading up to the game's official start. In some extreme cases, some had already decided who they think would be good allies, while others were ready to vote certain people off immediately.
However, that's not exactly anything new; first impressions have played a role on "Survivor" since the first season, as they do in non-reality TV competition life.
Perhaps the biggest change for "Survivor" this season is aesthetic, as the show will become the first non-studio network reality show to be shot in high definition. While viewers with standard TVs will see cropped images (the show will not be letterboxed), those with high definition TVs and cable will see the contestants, host Jeff Probst, the animals and their game-play metaphors with greater detail than ever before.
Now it's up to the contestants to make the game as stunning as the televised images. They have a difficult benchmark, as "Survivor" is coming off of two incredible seasons, China and Micronesia. But if they respond well to temptation, they just might be able to match them.
Andy Dehnart is a writer who publishes reality blurred, a daily summary of reality TV news. Find him on Facebook.
© 2008 MSNBC Interactive
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26726793/
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© 2008 MSNBC.com
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