There’s been buzz about a second Survivor All Stars since the first one ended, and that has been gaining steam lately since it’s been a few years since the last one. The first one was season 8, so it’s only natural that they would do one for season 16, which would be the one after Survivor: China.
Nothing’s official and probably won’t be until December or January, though no doubt a cast list would be leaked prior to that, but Reality TV World reports that Jeff Probst told reporters that “We’re going into our sixteenth season, it wouldn’t be a bad idea.” This follows Probst’s comments in May that the show is “due” for a second all star season.
“The only thing I can say is that I’ve come around to understanding that even though the All-Stars we did was a pain-in-the-ass from a production point of view, it was one of our best seasons,” Probst said. “And it was our best season because we had our best people back. I get that.”
Love it or hate it, there’s no denying that the original Survivor All Stars was a huge success. The premiere to 33.54 million viewers was the highest rated Survivor since the season 2 finale and the second highest rated premiere other than Outback, the average viewers of 21.49 million is third all time (behind seasons 1 and 2), and the 28 million people who tuned in to watch Rob propose to Amber was similarly highly ranked for a reunion show. Not to mention that CBS has been able to milk Romber for all it’s worth since then, very successfully in the case of The Amazing Race 7. Since All Stars, ratings have slowly eroded, to a series low of just shy of 15 million viewers in Fiji (still good enough to be a top 20 show, though).
Is the show just getting old, now in its 8th year? Are attempts to “ethnically diversify,” which seems to not be the case in Survivor: China, the least diverse cast since season 12, just neither working to keep old viewers nor draw new viewers? Are people tired of the complete lack of strategy lately? Does everyone just think Exile Island is stupid (which it is, but thankfully they’re killing that concept for China, to be replaced by the reward winners being allowed to kidnap a member of the losing tribe until the next immunity challenge, which is a concept that I do like)? Have competing networks finally found something to crack Survivor’s stranglehold on Thursdays at 8PM? Whatever the case, based on the performance of the last one, an All Stars 2 may be just the shot in the arm this thing needs to keep going.
Update: as annouced during the Survivor: China finale, this season will actually feature half lifelong fans and half former players. It will be Fans Vs. Favorites.
should be a good season. You can view the Castaways at Coldleftovers.com…