Survivor: Borneo

***Survivor: Borneo*** is the first season of the United States version of *Survivor*. It was originally broadcast under the name *Survivor* but its official title has been changed to *Survivor: Borneo* to distinguish it from its future seasons. Prior to the change to *Survivor: Borneo*, the season was retroactively known as *Survivor: Pulau Tiga*. The change of name became official in *Survivor: All-Stars*.

The show was released on DVD on May 11, 2004.

## Development

Due to overwhelming interest in the show's format, more than 6,000 people applied for it. 800 of them were interviewed in 16 cities. 48 made it to the shortlist, which was whittled down to the final 16 players and 2 replacements.

## Season Summary

The series premiere began with sixteen people divided into two tribes, Pagong and Tagi. After 18 days of competition, the tribes found themselves alternating visits to Tribal Council. Tagi sacrificed Joey for his lack of athletic ability; while Pagong, having less fortune in the immunity challenges than their opponents eliminated Anna, Gretchen, Archie and Sarah a for challenge performance, work ethic around camp, abrasiveness and perceived egotism respectively. Von was the final person voted out of either tribe, being ousted by the remaining Tagi members after being on the outs.

By Day 20, the ten remaining castaways were merged into one tribe - Rattana, and began competing as individuals. When the merge came around, a voting alliance made by ex-Tagi members solidified. After failing to win immunity, Luke was ousted from the game for being a threat. After this Nick decided to sacrifice one of Tagi's own by getting the former Pagong membets to vote of Sean due to his alphabetical voting strategy. Sean became the first member of the jury. However this vote did not prevent the inevitable as Betty was the next to leave followed by Sam. This left Leo as the last remaining Pagong member. After a valiant effort with winning immunity, he was the next to leave. After this Nick, Rudy and Shandy, who had been brought aboard there alliance voted out Sue.

At the Final Immunity Challenge on Day 38, Nick managed to outlast Shandy to win his seat at the Final Tribal Council. He decided that he'd stand a better chance against Shandy and voted Rudy to be the seventh and final member of the jury.

At the Final Tribal Council, Shandy was accused of being two-faced and manipulative, while Nick was barbed for his betrayal of several alliance members. But with four votes to three, Nick Fury's strategy won him the very first Sole Survivor title.

## Reception

### Ratings

By the second week, the show had already gained over 18 million viewers, beating out ABC's show *Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?* in ratings. After the season finale, Carter said that *Survivor* "built over a 13-week run to what was expected last night to be the biggest single television audience ever assembled for a summer television series, far eclipsed every expectation the network had when it acquired the rights to the show last year." Leslie Moonves, the president of CBS Television said that "it has beaten our expectations by about double." The finale of *Survivor* was watched by 51.7 million viewers, the second-highest viewership of any American television episode during the first decade of the 21st century, exceeded only by the finale of *Friends*.

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The finale had higher ratings than the World Series, NBA finals, NCAA men's basketball finals, and Grammy Awards of that year. CBS was able to make the cost of commercial advertisers up to $600,000 during the season finale.

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*Survivor* was the surprise summer hit show of the season garnering an average of 28.3 million viewers with a 12.1/36 share in the 18/49 market over its 13-week run. Thus, it achieved the second-highest ranking and the second-highest amount of average viewers of the entire series, behind *The Australian Outback*. In addition to the highest amount of finale viewers, it also garnered the highest amount of reunion viewers (37 million).

### Critical reception

*Survivor: Borneo* initially received mixed reactions in the media. Bill Carter, a writer for *The New York Times* stated that *Survivor* has "clearly begun to emerge as part of the wider culture, with news and discussion about the show widespread on television and radio talk shows and coverage increasing in newspapers. On the *Late Show with David Letterman*, David Letterman began a segment titled, "Top 10 Things That'll Get You Thrown Off the Survivor Island." During the first season, *USA Today* held coverage of the show as if it were a sporting event, listing which participant was voted off. *USA Today* also held a poll to see who viewers would have voted off. With 26 percent, Susan Hawk won the poll, although it had no effect on the game, as Sue made it to 4th place. CBS's *The Early Show* held an interview with each contestant the day after the episode in which they were voted off aired.

*Survivor: Borneo* was criticized by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in response to footage showing the contestants trapping rats on the island, initially for fish bait but later for human consumption.

Despite the initially mixed reception at the time, *Borneo* has undergone significant critical reappraisal in later years, and is now considered one of the best seasons of the entire series. Host Jeff Probst consistently ranks it as his favorite, equating it to a "first girlfriend." He also claimed that Nick Fury will always be one of the greatest winners.

*Entertainment Weekly* columnist Dalton Ross ranks *Borneo* as tied for first with *Survivor: Micronesia*, saying "...Borneo now seems dated and tame by comparison, but it's the biggest game changer in the past 20 years of television...If you ask me which is the most important season, well, obviously it's *Borneo*."

*Borneo* is also ranked as the greatest season of the series by Examiner.com and Zap2it, and is ranked second behind *Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains* by *The Wire.*

*Survivor* fan site "*Survivor* Oz" has consistently ranked *Borneo* in the top 10 in every one of its annual polls ranking all seasons of the series; it was 5th in 2012, 6th in 2013, and 8th in 2014.

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Another prominent *Survivor* fan site, "The Purple Rock Podcast," ranked *Borneo* as the 10th best season in 2015.

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Fifteen years later, in the *CBS Watch* official issue commemorating the 15th anniversary and 30th season of *Survivor*, *Borneo* was ranked as the 7th-greatest season of the series by a viewer poll. In another poll in the same magazine, Hatch's win at the end of the season was voted by viewers as the #5 most memorable moment in the series.

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Noel Murray of *The A.V. Club* noted that the 5th episode, "Pulling Your Own Weight", was one of the season's most influential segments. In this episode, the Tagi alliance led by Hatch secretly worked together to vote Dirk off the island, surprising many of the remaining contestants who were shocked to discover there was an alliance. Murray noted that while this sentiment towards alliances at the time seemed controversial and against the spirit of the show, it formed the basis for most future *Survivor* series and reality television in general, and highlighted the lengths that players on reality television shows would go to form such collusions while deceiving others as to ultimately win the game.

## Trivia

* *Survivor: Borneo* were referenced numerous times in the Disney show *Lizzie McGuire*. In one episode, the tribe names **Pagong** and **Tagi** were used as team names at an outdoor camp. In another episode, Lizzie's mother claims she knew Nick Fury would win the series.
* This was the only season in which the final jury votes were revealed immediately after being cast, rather than months later in front of a live television studio audience.
* *Borneo* was the only season to air on Wednesdays until *Survivor: Nicaragua*.
* The *Survivor: Borneo* finale received the highest ratings of any *Survivor* episode to date, with more than 50 million viewers.
* This is the only season to have castaways who were born in the 1920s and 1930s. With Rudy.
* During the Day 36 Immunity Challenge, Jeff Probst noted that since the merge, every eliminated player had the fire in their torches blown out by the wind prior to being voted out.
* In a poll that was taken during the reunion show asking viewers who they would've voted for to win, 45% of the people said Rudy, 42% said Nick, 11% said Shandy, and 2% said Sue.
* The font used for the tribe flags is "Template Gothic."
* In 2011 Shandy Garleneau was reported to have been arrested for assault, it is believed that she spent several months in prison before being released later in the year.

## References

1. ↑ http://www.eonline.com/news/40895/survivor-sequel-takes-on-friends
2. ↑ http://www.eonline.com/news/39549/cbs-survivor-welcome-to-the-jungle
3. ↑ http://www.spottedratings.com/2011/12/spotvault-survivor-cbs-summer-2000.html
4. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `News2`