SURVIVAL INSTINCT

ADVANTAGE STAY AHEAD OF THE GAME

ONE OF REALITY TV’S most compelling franchises, Survivor has achieved enduring popularity, no doubt due to the parallels between island life and, well, reality. It’s a game played out in the elements, and yet the contestants’ challenges, conversations and alliances could just as easily occur among colleagues in a CBD boardroom.

You could argue Survivor’s format trumps even Big Brother’s as a social experiment – survival, after all, is the most basic human instinct. But what makes a survivor?

Through an incredible 40 US seasons, the format has seen contestants divided into teams to battle it out for the title of ‘Sole Survivor’ in an effort to answer this very question. Often grouped according to socioeconomic status, age and even, controversially, by race, the contestants’ trials and tribulations provide an extraordinary insight into the nature of community, human interaction and the hardwired drive for supremacy.

The imminent sixth season of the rebooted Australian series will again adopt a theme, pitting ‘brawn’ against ‘brain’. It’s perhaps one of the more relatable contests for young Australian men as they weigh up traditional male stereotypes and fresher, more nuanced conceptions of masculinity.