‘Survivor’ Once Almost Offered ‘One Cold Beer’ As Challenge Reward, But Changed It for This Reason
Survivor is one of the most popular reality TV shows in history, with more than 40 seasons under its belt. Survivor is known for pitting contestants against each other in endurance, strategy, and social skills challenges.
Over the years, Survivor has evolved, and so has the way they approach rewards for the players. In a recent podcast, host Jeff Probst discussed the changes they’ve made and revealed an interesting story about a reward that almost happened.
‘Survivor’ is famous for its challenges and rewards
Survivor has been on the air since 2000. One of the reasons the series has remained popular for so long is its challenges and rewards. In each season, contestants are divided into two or more tribes and compete in a series of physical and mental challenges to win rewards and immunity.
The Survivor challenges are designed to test the contestants’ endurance, strength, agility, and problem-solving skills. They range from obstacle courses and endurance challenges to puzzles and memory games.
The rewards for winning the challenges can vary. Some are small, such as a single piece of candy or a small amount of extra rice for the tribe. Other rewards are more significant, such as a feast of food, a new shelter or sleeping area, or the opportunity to spend time with loved ones.
The show’s producers are always coming up with new and creative challenges and rewards to keep the audience engaged. According to EW, some of the most iconic challenges have involved swimming with sharks, walking on tightropes, and jumping off cliffs into the ocean.
‘Survivor’ once almost offered ‘one cold beer’ as a challenge reward
In a recent episode on his podcast On Fire with Jeff Probst, Probst threw it back to Survivor Season 1, deep diving into the fundamentals of the premiere season that still hold true today. In the episode, the Survivor host discussed some lessons the production team learned while shooting the first season in 2000. One of the lessons being rewards must keep getting better.
Probst went on to explain how they almost offered one cold beer as a challenge reward because the show was sponsored by a beer company. Unfortunately, the contestants hated the idea because the previous award was bigger.
“We had a reward, and the reward was going to be one cold beer,” he said. “And we had a sponsor, Budweiser. So we send out Tree Mail, and we get word back that the players are disappointed. They don’t want just one cold beer. The reason they are disappointed is that the previous reward was bigger than a beer.”
Survivor producers had to revamp the reward to resolve the situation
The producers quickly realized that they needed to come up with a better reward, and fast. At the moment, Budweiser guys were on location, coming to see their investment being integrated into the show. So whatever new reward they came up with had to include a Budweiser beer.
After some discussion, Mark Burnett decided to offer the players two more rewards in addition to the beer. The reward was now a Budweiser, a bowl of spaghetti, and getting to see the first five minutes of episode one of the show they were starring in. The combination proved to be a hit with the players, who were thrilled with their reward.
Since then, the producers learned that every reward on the show had to be bigger than the previous one. If you get steak dinner in episode 6, episode seven can’t be one potato chip.
So, the next time you watch Survivor and see the contestants excitedly fighting for a reward, remember that much thought went into ensuring the prize was worth fighting for.
