Just as video killed the radio star, the Internet could ultimately drive a stake through the heart of reality TV.
So says Survivor host Jeff Probst, who will once again be overseeing challenges, doling out rewards and conducting Tribal Councils in Survivor: All-Stars, the eighth instalment in the reality TV series that started it all. It debuts Feb. 1 on CBS and Global immediately following the Super Bowl XXXVII broadcast.
Each successive season of Survivor has seen more and more information leaked out ahead of time, often through so-called spoiler websites on the Net. It culminated with an off-shore betting scandal that revealed Sandra Diaz-Twine would wind up the winner of Survivor: Pearl Islands before the show had even begun airing.
"The Internet and the accessibility to information has made it very difficult to do shows like Survivor," Probst told the Sun yesterday in a phone interview from his home in Los Angeles. "And it wouldn't surprise me if ultimately it led to the demise of our show at some point."
With each series filmed a few months before it goes to air, keeping a lid on twists, vote results and other secrets is proving nigh-on impossible. And it's not the contestants themselves who are doing the blabbing.
"Sooner or later you cannot combat people who betray you," Probst said. "We have a crew of 400 people, and everybody tells somebody something. I definitely believe that.
"Once you spread information like that and there's money to be made or fame to be had - 'Hey I know something you don't know, listen to this' - all we can do, honestly, is counter it with our own misinformation."
Survivor: All-Stars will see the return of 18 past contestants, including memorable characters like the original Survivor's Richard Hatch and crusty former navy SEAL Rudy Boesch, and Survivor: Pearl Islands would-be Blackbeard, Rupert Boneham.
Some All-Stars spoilers have already bubbled to the surface, suggesting that the past $1-million winners don't fare all that well, that Rupert does not emerge as the ultimate victor and that Survivor: The Amazon winner Jenna Morasca leaves the show early, due to the death of her mother.
Then again, maybe some of those tidbits have just been released into the wild by CBS's own counter-intelligence squad. Gamblers, be warned.
Said Probst: "Better make sure if you're betting, that what you're reading is right."
