It's a real-life version of a soap opera. People have that morbid fascination to watch someone else's business. Whether we're capable of potentially winning a million dollars. There's no denying the skill with which producer Mark Burnett orchestrates the show. Survivor contestants start out on one of two teams and each week a player is eliminated, until the remaining contestants are thrown together and the team concept is thrown out.
People start out working with each other and end up working against each other.
Those who form alliances may go the furthest, but eventually even they have to face off. We like characters good and evil, a nice plot. It's more like Charles Dickens' novels, which were published in serial form. Survivor has really captured the deep pleasure of that kind of sequential, unfolding narrative. It's like a drama where clearly the casting is critical to create tension.