Australian Survivor previews its major changes

Australian Survivor will have a longer game and more contestants than the US version, but a smaller prize.

On the show, 24 contestants will compete for 55 days to win A$500,000, roughly equivalent to US$372,000. The CBS version has, of course, a cast of 16 to 20 people competing for 39 days and $1 million.

Jonathan LaPaglia is hosting the show, which is the third season to air in Australia but is essentially a reboot, as the second season was a weak 2006 celebrity version that aired on another network.

Reports earlier this year said the show would be filmed in Borneo, just like season one of CBS’ version, but the location was later revealed to be Samoa, which hosted four seasons of the US version.

The show began filming the week of May 16—a report on a May 11 launch party said “Jonathan LaPaglia will fly out today ahead of filming beginning next week in Samoa.” With a 55-day, eight-week schedule, that would mean it’s still being filmed, wrapping up next week.

There is still no debut date. The longer production schedule will likely allow for more than one episode to air each week, as is common in Australia.

A preview of Australian Survivor

Today, Network Ten released a two-minute preview that introduces some of those contestants via soundbite only, and shows brief footage from challenges.

It also shows that  LaPaglia has made a different wardrobe choice, wearing a t-shirt and shorts, not a button-up shirt like Jeff Probst. (Probst’s shirts, by the way, have been custom-made.)