Road Closed for Tribal Council: Vunivutu Villagers Latest Beneficiaries of the Survivor Boomtown Effect
The hit "reality" TV show,
Survivor, premieres tonight on CBS
in the United States. Over the past year, a sleepy village on Vanua
Levu, the second largest island of Fiji has been hosting the
production crew—and reaping the benefits. 150 villagers have been employed by the crew to work about 10 hours a day, seven days a week, for USD 5.00 per hour (and double time on Sundays and holidays). For some it was their first experience in any form of paid employment. This
article from the Fiji Post, reposted by a Vanua Levu blogger, gives
some behind the scene details. Meanwhile the island's new eco-resort village is putting finishing touches on their community hall. Globe-trotting gap year students and reality TV junkies, look north. Vanua Levu is for lovers. [
Survivor Maps,
Vorovoro, the eco-resort with a difference,
Vorovoro's new bure (community hall),
Google's hires satellite image of the area]
posted by rschram
on Feb 8, 2007 -
3 comments
Survivor Sucks A nice little site which rips every reality show apart quite nicely, but my favorite is the
"Off Topic" section where threads on any subject offer up some of the best trolling/flamebait and some very funny comments. More inside...
posted by Mack Twain
on Apr 15, 2003 -
9 comments
The East Coast knows... Survivor Africa is over. You may not have noticed it ever starting...
But Kim, Lex, Ethan, or Tom won.
I'll let someone else spoil the surprise for those West Coast viewers.
posted by jacobw
on Jan 10, 2002 -
11 comments
CBS posts 'Survivor: Africa' cast profiles If reality TV is even marginally relevant to anyone anymore, the bios of the latest Survivor contestants have been posted. My questions are: 1. are these people representative of the American population at large? Almost all of the women list In Style magazine as their favorite and one picks "shopping and ads" as her favorite section of the newspaper... and 2. will more or less people be watching Survivor post-WTC tragedy?
posted by popvulture
on Sep 25, 2001 -
26 comments
As a sort-of follow up to
yesterday's discussion of "whatever-happened-to-the-Big Brother (UK) Housemates",
here's a funny little story about what Rudy Boesch is up to these days. We all (may) remember Rudy as the politically incorrect ex-Navy Seal from the first edition of Survivor (US), won by Richard Hatch. Nice to see fame hasn't changed him.
posted by msacheson
on Jul 12, 2001 -
0 comments
"He doesn't say please, he doesn't say thank you." Yeah, it's
Survivor, British-style. A natural leader with survival experience emerges, gets his tribe organised, and is promptly voted out in the quietest of revolutions. My American girlfriend, who'd watched Colby marshal his people through the Outback season, is visibly gobsmacked. ("I really couldn't do psychology in this country.") Different levels of
power distance at work?
posted by holgate
on May 22, 2001 -
12 comments
Somehow We Survived Survivor 2 "Sunshine"
Tina wins, for
those who care and
for those who don't. Poor Bryant Gumbel... I can't believe he got conned into hosting last night's "special." And we'll never understand why
Colby didn't pick Keith to go up against in the final vote, which would've all but guaranteed his own win of the $1 million grand prize. And now, back to your regularly scheduled summer reruns...
posted by yarf
on May 4, 2001 -
30 comments
Survivor: Monster Island Destroy All Monsters takes on Survivor with a cast of monsters from Japanese films. This looks much more exciting than CBS's show, and the quotes are better to:
Ghidorah has aspirations beyond mindless destruction. "You know what I always wanted to do? Musicals. West Side Story. This 'harass the human race' stuff gets old after a while, ya know?"
posted by DragonBoy
on Mar 27, 2001 -
10 comments
24 hours to go. Am I the only one who can't wait for the new tribes to square off? Place your bets at
SurvivorDeadPool.
posted by Basta
on Jan 27, 2001 -
13 comments
CBS said
NO! Reebok said yes.
If you have watched survivor, many of you may have noticed the ads for Reebok that push the limits of your imagination... somewhat. Now, watch the ad that CBS won't air. But Reebok has kindly put up on their website.
Is this a new low for TV? Or just another barrier being breached?
posted by da5id
on Aug 7, 2000 -
1 comment
