‘Survivor’: Jeff Probst still wants celebrity season; let’s cast it with CBS stars!
Could a celebrity version of “Survivor” really work? This is something that we’ve wondered for almost ten seasons now, especially as so many other series have taken this sort of route, and while some shows suffered with it (“The Mole”), others soared (“The Apprentice”).
Are argument to this point has always been pretty simple: if you are “Survivor,” you need people other than Stephen Baldwin to take part. Not only that, but you also need to make sure that the people who are there don’t just quit a few days in. When celebrities don’t need the money (especially when it’s going to charity, and they may forget about the good cause when suffering hunger pains), they may not have as big of an incentive to stick around. This is why the show would need to cast not only celebrities, but big fans who want to play the game for the sake of the game itself. It could be a flop, but it could also be very entertaining
Probst told People Magazine this week about one celebrity he may already have on board, and some of the changes that he would implement for a celebrity season:
“Mark Burnett and I really want to do a celebrity version. We were just talking about this at a Grammy party last week. Neil Patrick Harris was there, and he told me flat out he wants to play. I challenged him and said ‘Do you really want to do it, or is this just a fun fantasy that will never happen?’ He said, ‘I want to do it.’
“So, on the heels of NPH having the guts to say, ‘I’m in’ – I’m putting out the challenge! If you are a celebrity and truly believe you could hack it, it’s time to put up. It would be a shortened shoot – maybe 10 days or so – so you can still get back to do your movies and TV shows, and you won’t lose so much weight that your agents will panic. But rest assured it will still kick your a**. If we can get a truly great cast together I think CBS would go for it.”
While we were long against this idea, we’re starting to turn this around for one simple reason: if you put this on as a summer show, it wouldn’t take away from the regular seasons (which we like having far more than a watered-down version), and you could just start things off from the merge with 10-12 contestants or just have smaller tribes and then a smaller merge.
As for the cast, why not just lean heavily on CBS folks for the perfect brand cross-promotion? Pauley Perrette on “NCIS” would be a nice fit alongside Neil, and Mayim Bialik of “The Big Bang Theory” fame is a big fan. If you want to creep everyone out, convince Michael Emerson of “Lost” and “Person of Interest” to come on. If Angus T. Jones thinks “Two and a Half Men” is “filth,” put him on an island and see how he likes the bugs. Stick Sharon Osbourne from “The Talk” on there and add Gayle King. Shannon Sharpe, and Craig Ferguson, and that’s one heck of an interesting cast. Since that’s only nine people, let’s add one more woman to bring this to ten: how about “2 Broke Girls” star and pop-culture fanatic Beth Behrs?
Is this a version of “Survivor” you would really want to see?