Survivor 51: Why Fiji remains central location
Given that Survivor 51 marks the beginning of the new “Open Era” of the game, you could easily argue that it would make sense for the production to consider a move elsewhere. So why isn’t that happening?
Ultimately, there are a number of old-school fans of the show who likely miss some of the geographical shifts that allowed the early seasons to feel special. Africa, after all, looks so different from Borneo, Thailand, China, or Samoa. The different locations also allowed for the surroundings to play a part in the game! Yet, for quite some time now Fiji has served as the central setting. Given that Aubry Bracco is the most-recent champ of the show, there is some irony in the fact that the last season to shoot outside of Fiji was her first season in Kaôh Rōng.
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As you would imagine, the decision to stay in a singular spot is born out of a number of reasons, which is something that host / showrunner Jeff Probst explained not that long ago in an interview with Gold Derby:
“When we used to do Survivor, 20 years ago, there were all these islands we could go to, and we would have a scouting team that would go out way in advance. We don’t have that anymore. In a lot of places, islands that were empty now have hotels on them, because Survivor brought a lot of awareness and tourism. There’s a lot of political unrest in places we don’t want to go to anymore. There’s the value of the dollar, and how it stacks up against other countries. Weather is a real thing. Fiji has actually saved Survivor, and our relationship with their government and all the landowners is amazing. If that changed, we’d be back looking desperately for somewhere.”
The fact that the setting remains the same is one of the reasons why we do wish the show would do more with themes rather than just generic, numbered seasons — it is so much easier now for everything to blend together!
Related – See more of what we know about Survivor 51
Do you think that Survivor is ever going to be outside of Fiji again?
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