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Wednesday, 13 March, 2002, 10:51 GMT

Survivor returns with new look


Survivor
The number of contestants has been cut
Reality TV show Survivor makes a return to British screens on Wednesday night as 12 new castaways battle to win £1m.

The contestants will be marooned off the coast of Panama where they will be divided into two tribes and set physical and mental challenges as they are whittled down to one eventual winner.

The show has been given a revamp as ITV1 aims to win more viewers than the first series, with an interactive element added and fewer contestants.

Survivor

One of the main criticisms of the first Survivor was the lack of opportunity for viewers to participate in the show, unlike the Channel 4 hit Big Brother where voting played a big part in the game.

The new presenter will be Channel 4 cricket commentator Mark Nicholas, who replaces newsreader Mark Austin.

The studio-based episode hosted by John Leslie, in which the evicted contestant was interviewed, has been completely dropped.

Harlot

Series one winner Charlotte Hobrough will host Survivor: Raw, an extra programme, going out on digital channel ITV2.

Dubbed Charlotte the Harlot after having an affair on the Survivor island, she gave up her job as a policewoman after netting the £1m prize.

Survivor

Survivor came in for a fair bit of criticism when it first aired in the UK in 2001 and viewing figures proved such a disappointment that ITV1 cut the number of weekly shows.

The network had hoped for ratings of up to 12 million on the back of the popularity of reality shows but it failed to capture the imagination in the way Big Brother had.

However, the show did pick up eight million viewers for the live final in which Hobrough beat the Jackie Carey.

Latin American dancer

Another criticism levelled at it was the high number of contestants,which meant there was little chance to get to know the individuals.

This has been addressed by cutting the number of marooned from 16 to 12.

Charlotte Hobrough

The interactive element will be introduced later in the series as viewers will be given the chance to air their views on the contestants.

Contestants include a shepherdess, a Latin American dancer, a Royal Marine turned barrister and a CID officer.

The first episode of Survivor will be shown at 2145 GMT.


Related to this story:
Survivor II contestants revealed (13 Mar 02 | TV and Radio) Charlotte wins £1m Survivor (25 Jul 01 | TV and Radio) Survivor proves a TV dinosaur (25 Jul 01 | TV and Radio) 'Modest' ratings for £1m Survivor (26 Jul 01 | TV and Radio)


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