CBS announced today that it has ordered two more editions of Survivor, network television's longest running and most successful reality series. The two new editions, the show's eleventh and twelfth, will be broadcast in the 2005-2005 season.
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While the pickup was never to be considered in doubt considering Survivor's consistently strong ratings performance (in fact, the network had already announced it had begun accepting applications for Survivor 11 during this past Sunday's Survivor: Vanuatu finale), today's announcement marks the network's first official confirmation of the series' 2005-2006 return.
Survivor: Palau, the upcoming tenth edition of the series set on the Pacific island chain nation of Palau, is scheduled to premiere in early 2005. According to Survivor host Jeff Probst, Palau will feature twenty contestants (up from the eighteen featured in both Survivor: All-Star and Survivor: Vanuatu and the sixteen used in the show's six other editions) and see the Survivor game "changed in a dramatic way," with "everything the survivors have come to expect being wiped out in the first ten minutes." The island chain's history as a World War II battleground complete with numerous naval and aircraft wrecks is also expected to play a role as one of the season's themes.
While CBS did not announce reveal where Survivor 11 and Survivor 12 would film, executive producer Mark Burnett recently told E! Online that Patagonia, southern Argentina, Mozambique, Madagascar, the Maldives, India, China, and Papua New Guinea are among the locations currently being scouted.
Survivor: Vanuatu finished its season ranked fifth among Nielsen Media Research's rankings of the 2004-2005 television season's most watched programs, averaging 19.65 million viewers, a 7.4/20 rating/share in the Adults 18-49 demographic, a 5.6/17 in Adults 18-34 and a 8.7/21 in Adults 25-54. Donald Trump's repeated claims aside, Survivor: Vanuatu also ranks as television's number one reality show.
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While no longer delivering the enormous CSI-like numbers drawn by its initial Survivor: The Australian Outback sequel, the Emmy-winning and four-time People's Choice Award-winning series has remained one of the most reliable franchises on television, with both of Survivor's yearly editions finishing in the Top 10 Nielsen rankings for each of the past three television seasons.