Even if unscripted, Survivor provided a rather stable narrative structure. Right before arriving to the island, the 16 contestants were divided into two groups (named after two Pulau Tiga beaches): the Tagi Tribe and the Pagong Tribe. Every few days, the tribes will compete against each other in two different types of challenges: the first one provided specific material prizes (maps, food, beer, matches, and the use of cell phones), and the second one excused the winning tribe from going to Tribal Council (the place for voting contestants off the game and the only traditional shooting stage on the island). Consequently, winning the second challenge meant not having to eliminate a member of the tribe. When the number of contestants went down to ten, the two tribes were merged into the Rattana tribe. Its members were, in the order that they were voted off ending with the winner, Gervase, Gretchen, Greg, Jenna, Colleen, Sean, Susan, Rudy, Kelly, and Richard. At this point, the structure of the two challenges remained in place; however, prizes went to single contestants, and the second challenge provided individual immunity against being voted off during Tribal Council.

     The importance both of winning challenges and of remaining on the island, along with the physical and psychological demands of the whole experience, created a dramatic intensity among the contestants that lent itself to very crude and emotional interpersonal encounters. As Executive Producer Mark Burnett explains, Survivor is about both "Machiavellian politics at their most primal" and "how [someone) can manipulate complicated team dynamics under pressure ." Since contestants were taped 24 hours of the day (by cameramen or recording devices hidden all over the island), viewers had access to these high­ strung, spontaneous responses, which became the core of the show's spectacle. The ubiquitous state of surveillance under which the castaways lived, along with particular acts of "self-preservation" (e.g., creating alliances and backstabbing other contestants), and excessive sensationalism (e.g., eating bugs and rats and killing a wild boar) made the popular press call Survivor both " voyeur TV" and an "extreme reality show."

     These two rubrics point toward the show's broader genre ("reality TV"), which was further layered with an eclectic construction design to appeal to diverse audiences. As Burnett explains, he envisioned Survivor as "something akin to Gilligan: Island meets Lord of the Flies meets Ten Little Indians meets The Real World." Burnett's allusion to literary texts and contemporary media phenomena exemplifies the show's attempt to cater to CBS's older and more traditional core audience while bringing younger viewers to the network. The show succeeded on all ratings fronts. As Rick Kissell explained, helped by its final episode's exceptional ratings, Survivor ranked as "the most­ watched series of the 1999-2000 season, with its 13- episode average of 28.25 million viewers." The two-hour finale averaged 51.69 million viewers, more than any program during the season, except the Super Bowl. The final episode "topped a 50 share in all key demo breakdowns, including a 54 in adults 18-49 and an incredible 60 share in adults 18-34." In addition, Survivor's 28.6 rating and 45 share in homes "makes it the highest-rated summer broadcast since such marks were first kept beginning in 1987."

     Survivor's ratings success was even more impressive since it aired during the summer, a period when TV viewership dwindled considerably. Survivor further accomplished a very desirable feat for any TV series: its ratings, both overall and in all key demo­ graphics, increased with each successive  episode (with the exception of the fifth installment that posted slight dips). As Josef Adalian and Michael Schneider reported, CBS capitalized on the series' popularity by the newly merged Viacom/CBS behemoth," with ads for the reality show appearing frequently in "younger­ friendly Viacom outlets such as MTV [Music Television] and VH I [Video Hits I)" as well as "three separate Infinity radio stations." After its summer success, CBS moved the Survivor franchise to Thursday nights during TV's regular season. Six more installments have already aired (Survivor: The Australian Outback, Survivor: Africa, Survivor: Marquesas, Survivor: Thailand, Survivor: The Amawn, and Survivor: Panama). Survivor has helped CBS regain competitiveness in the ratings battle by shaking up its "elderly-oriented" image and bringing younger audiences to the network. In addition, the franchise's voyeuristic and sensationalist elements triggered debates about the strategies that Survivor as well  as other reality-TV shows were employing to attract audiences.