Survivor Ramping Up for Back-to-Back Seasons

Will Survivor 19 and 20 Both be Filmed in Samoa?

Jun 20, 2009

Budget cuts disrupt traditional Survivor filming schedule, potentially forcing the show to remain in Samoa for two consecutive seasons.

Over the next three-and-a-half months, seasons 19 and 20 of Survivor will be filming back-to-back due to budget cuts. Typically, the fall season is filmed in the summer, starting in late-June and concluding in early August. The crew then returns home for two-and-a-half months before heading back out on-location to film the spring season, which usually shoots from late-October to early-December.

The Crew’s Hardships in Gabon and Tocantins

The Los Angeles Times recently interviewed Probst about his nine years and 18 seasons with Survivor, and he recounted the difficulty of filming the last two seasons in two of the most remote locations the show has ever visited: Gabon, Africa, and Tocantins, Brazil. The latter was particularly excruciating for the crew, which operated out of a tent and cabin base camp with portable toilets and showers. During the two months on-location in stifling temperatures, members of the staff were plagued by beetle infestations in their living quarters and hit with some of the worst downpours the show has ever seen.

After that, Probst claims the crew had had enough. “We called [Survivor creator and executive producer Mark Burnett] and said, ‘Dude, next time, hotel or mutiny.’” They got their wish, and the 325 members of the crew are currently stationed at Aggie Grey’s Resort in Samoa. While Probst claimed that Samoa is the first time the crew has ever stayed in a hotel, this is blatantly not true. The show’s crew has been housed in resorts while filming in the Amazon, Panama, the Cook Islands, and Micronesia, among other locations.

Season 19 has already started filming on the island of Upolu and will conclude in July, but the Survivor crew has the entire resort booked for an additional two months, giving them just enough time to film the twentieth season in Samoa as well. Reservations at Aggie Grey’s will once again become available after October 2.

Reusing the Same Location?

If Survivor does in fact stay in Samoa for Season 20, which the evidence points strongly towards, it will not be the first time that the same location has been used in two consecutive seasons. In 2003, Survivor: Pearl Islands and Survivor: All-Stars filmed on many of the same beaches in Panama’s Pearl Islands. In 2005, Survivor returned to the Pearl Islands a third time for Season 12, Survivor: Panama – Exile Island, and once again reused some of the same filming locations. With each season revolving around a completely different theme, the show’s producers were able to ensure that the recycled location was a relatively small issue. Each season maintained a unique look and feel, so fans who are hesitant about two back-to-back seasons shot in Samoa should be able to rest assured that seasons 19 and 20 will be distinct from one another with different buff colors, different twists, different themes, and of course, different castaways.

For Survivor: Samoa, which will debut on CBS in September, 18 new castaways will compete for the million dollar prize. Their identities are expected to be officially unveiled sometime in August, while another crop of castaways is battling it out on Season 20.

urvivor will air Thursdays at 8 p.m. EST on CBS. A preview of the new season is available on-line at the show’s official Web site at CBS.com.

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