So, ok, I’ve been pretty open about the fact that my biggest special interest, especially lately, is Survivor (and competitive reality television in general). One thing I’ve always been super curious about is the versions of Survivor that aren’t in English, because theres NO subbed versions of those out there. And indeed, I don’t think the raw files are very easy to find if they can be found at all. Except maybe the quiet popular French version. The English language versions (mostly US, South Africa, and AUS, but also a handful of NZ and UK versions.) are all in circulation and I have access to them, even if I’ve so far only seen the US version myself. I also think at one point at least one season of the Israeli (ew, obviously) version was subbed online. But that was in 2012 so I’d be shocked if that still exists. Oh and there’s like a highlight real of one really funny contestant on the Japanese version thats subbed, but not the whole season. Other than that, I’m not aware of any subbing or archival efforts for non-English language Survivor!
If you dont know, which you probably don’t, the original concept of Survivor was this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expedition_Robinson_1997
And Survivor is still called some form of “Robinson” in nordic countries and the low countries and I maybe some other places. I’d LOVE to watch these, especially I am obsessed with someday seeing Expidition Robinson 1997 so I can see Survivor’s true origins. But I don’t know if the files exist. I did see a person from somewhere in the nordics on /r/survivor mention potentially subtitling Robinson seasons but it didnt get much attention. So I assume maybe the files exist. Maybe theres some Nordic streaming service with them or something, or maybe they’re in circulation over there. But I also assume some obscure versions of Survivor are lost forever or at least “lost” in the sense that their tapes exist in some company’s archive but they arent available anywhere online. I do know that one English language Survivor season that was for the entire continent of Africa is actually currently considered lost. https://survivor.fandom.com/wiki/Survivor_Africa:_Panama Which is wild because I remember people on Survivor forums watching it at the time! Reality TV in general is really poorly preserved media in ways that scripted shows are not, though a person I know in the community has been working on hoarding reality TV. But A lot of early to mid aughts shows are all or partially lost at least outside the tape libraries of Paramount and other companies. And its unknown if even they still have them because they haven’t said anything because media companies (incorrectly) think noone wants to rewatch competitive RTV. (Also RTV shows often have licensing issues, because the Real World for example used popular music as soundtrack, and of course American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance have fairly obviously licensing issues at play). Its incredible that media companies still think this as well because there were TONS of people that discovered and binged Survivor and became lifelong fans of it because it became a show they discovered during Covid lol. Paramount+ does at least have all of Survivor, Big Brother, and I think TAR, but it doesnt have the early seasons of the Challenge or the Real world or ANY of Road Rules (one season of Road Rules is currently considered almost entirely lost, but probably exists in Paramount’s archives lol) that they have the rights too. The also have the rights to the celebreality era of VH1 like Flavor of Love and don’t put them on there, but luckily those are well archived unofficially and are also I think on Tubi. Also Paramount+ is an awful service that is probably closing down soon lol. And has removed things like the Real World Reunions they did from the service :/ Iirc there was also a thing where early seasons of the Bachelor were put on some service, but noone thought to download them, and then they were taken back down and they are hard/impossible to find again lol.
Noteably the person who’s hoarding competitive RTV has been doing so with non-Anglo versions of The Traitors (which is a fairly new franchise and happens to have an obsessive archivist who goes out of his way to archive every version of the show) and using AI to do subtitles. And has also done it with a few The Amazing Race seasons. No Survivor (or Big Brother) seasons yet though. But it is interesting that the AI tech is close enough to being there that it can make those shows somewhat watchable. Oh also there used to be an old-internet style website with tons of information about every version of both Survivor and Big Brother in the world thats down now. Wikipedia pages and fandom articles still exist but they aren’t as complete as that site was. I don’t remember the name of it so I can’t search the internet archive.
Anyway, a discussion on the RTV server I’m in started about how US Survivor juries don’t value physical competitiveness nearly at all (though quiet a few challenge beasts have won, their ability to beast challenges was not part of the jury’s consideration). This turned into a discussion of how cultural differences effect different versions of the show. Physical ability does matter somewhat to Australian juries. And I also mentioned how I’ve been told on Robinson versions of Survivor physical ability and survival ability matter almost entirely, the strategic game is looked down on (though it is still played to some extent) and the ultimate winner is usually the one who meets the “values of Robinson” which are usually challenge and survival ability. (which unfortunately means very few women have won Robinson :/ but anyway). Funny enough, one of the cool things about the original season of Survivor in the US was that the strategic game hadn’t developed yet, and there was some hand wringing about the morality of alliances and more than half the cast refused to play that way and the few that did play that way ran circles around them. But on the very next season alliances and such had become expectation that was barely questioned. Also sometime around season 30 or so some hardcore fans who prefer the show to be about the social experiment bemoan that “The game” of Survivor became more the main character of the show than the actual people and their relationships. Personally I like a balance of gameplay and relationships in my Survivor, but I lean more in the relationships corner than the gameplay one these days.
Anyway, now for the reason this is posted in this comm, this discussion reminded me of one of my favorite bits of Survivor trivia! Into the Shangri-la. As you can see from the article, its a fairly old attempt to recreate the show in China. But its almost a complete different show lmao. I brought this up in this discussion because I thought it might reflect cultural differences. Like, China is a collective culture, so they don’t do vote outs or a solo winner, they do team competitions and a team winner. Which is really interesting. (The thing mentioned in the article that someone left the show because of feeling bad about locals being mistreated does suck though, but who knows if thats true anyway, its not mentioned in the fandom page and the specific claim is unsourced, though the page in general does have citations which I haven’t checked out).
Annoyingly, the conversation turned sour when this happened. (cw sinophobia)
Because yaknow, you can’t even mention China in a purely cultural nonpolitical context without some weirdo saying some weird sinophobic shit. Idk how Chinese singing shows work, but I highly doubt if they don’t have public voting that thats the reason lmao. Especially since, yaknow, China is a democracy lol.
Anyway, I’m posting this here because I’m really curious about Into the Shangri-La, tbh I have little hope that the footage is actually available anywhere online. And I’m sure if it is I’d have to get around the great firewall and attempt to communicate with some Chinese people to get to it lol. (Or maybe find some expats). I don’t think this kind of post would be welcome on /r/Sino. But I do wonder like, do you think Central Chinese Television would still at least have the tapes somewhere such that they could be unearthed and translated someday? Or are we assuming lost forever on this one? I just find the concept fascinating and would really like to see it.
Idk this is a crossover of two interests of mine, RTV and media preservation. And I also wanted to bring up Into the Shangri-la’s existence to this comm. I know like 3/4s of what i just wrote was off topic but it came around to the point eventually!
