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TV GUIDE
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by Ileane Rudolph
May 31-June 6, 2003 issue
CBS hatches a plan to outwit, outplay and outlast its Friendly competition
By announcing plans for an "all-star" edition of Survivor next winter, CBS has made it clear it has no intention of ceding the Thursday-night ratings to the final season of TV's No. 1 comedy. At least not without a fight.
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"Friends, look out. I'm going to kick ass," promises Mark Burnett about the eighth edition of the cutthroat jungle reality show, which will reunite some of the best former competitors. "I'm begging [CBS chairman] Leslie Moonves to let us come out of the Super Bowl with the opening all-star episode. [With that exposure] I think we can beat Friends for the rest of the season."
Earlier this month, just a few days after 22 million watched 22-year old swimsuit model Jenna Morasca win Survivor: The Amazon, Burnett was salivating about the prospect of "strong, great characters" who will return to vie for a $2 million prize. "I know in my mind which players I want," he says, while adding that "it seems logical" the all-stars would include Richard Hatch, Susan Hawk, Rudy Boesch, Tina Wesson (who previously said she would never repeat the experience), Jerri Manthey and Ethan Zohn.
Still to be determined is exactly how many players from each season will be involved, and says host Jeff Probst, "how to make it fun for them now that they've done it once."
But first the Survivor crew will head down to Panama's remote Pearl Islands for this fall's installment. Each tribe will inhabit its own small island in a remote archipelago that was once the haunt of Caribbean pirates. "We're going to have penalties for losing a reward challenge," says Probst. "We want the feeling of unruliness." Expect lots of underwater challenges in an area overrun with dangerous sea life. Forget jumping the sharks: Survivor is swimming with them.
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