The very first Australian Survivor was so poorly received it would be 14 years before another could be attempted.
Drunk with the success of Survivor back in 2000, Nine Network greenlit the very first Australian adaptation.
The 2002 series, hosted by 60 Minutes journalist Lincoln Howes, was filmed in Whaler’s Way, an Eyre Peninsula coastal nature reserve near Port Lincoln, South Australia.
There were 16 Australian castaways competing for 39 days for a grand prize of $500,000.
But it struggled in the ratings, and was criticised for its casting and a weaker execution than the US production.
In the end Rob Dickson took out the prize, but it would be 2006 before Seven attempted a short-lived Celebrity Australian Survivor, hosted by Dicko, and 2016 before 10’s premium version with Jonathan LaPaglia.
21 years on, members of the original cast reunited at Whaler’s Way becoming the first cast of a Survivor series anywhere in the world to return to their original filming location and have their experiences recorded.