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Survivor and the trouble with fastracking

Fastracking TV is a good idea right? Except when it comes to Survivor finales.

While debate over continues over whether Seven should be giving fans the Lost finale on Monday May 24th, it will be small change compared to Nine’s plans for the Survivor finale.

In Australia the ‘Heroes vs Villains’ finale will air on May 25th. In the US it will air on May 16th (or May 17th if you take the international dateline into account).

Yet Nine is currently airing episodes just a few days after the US. So how did this occur?

Alas, difficulties arise when CBS brings forward its finale to a prime Sunday slot, as it traditionally does for its season finales. Nine, which has been happy with weekly episodes on Tuesdays, suddenly finds itself with the dilemma of extra episodes, causing it to hold the finale for another week.

Could it add the finale to its episode on Tuesday 18th? Well yes, but including the reunion that would be four hours of Survivor on one night. An alternative idea might be to schedule it for Wednesday 19th after Hey Hey. But by then diehard Survivor fans will have probably learned the winner anyway.

Fastracking is never a perfect science. Who would be a Programmer?

25 Responses

  1. @Carta. I know it sounds unlikely but that’s what happened. Saw the list by accident on youtube. There are articles on the web with the list but the media obviously couldn’t make a big deal without revealing the results to everyone and making the show pointless to air. Or perhaps most news companies just didn’t hear the story!

    I’ve been following the list for 7 weeks since I saw it and it’s been right every week so i can’t help but assume it’s a cameraman who’s leaked it all.

    But it’s not the first time it’s happened. Survivor: Amazon’s results were also leaked when the cameramen went and put bets down on the two finalists, two people Nobody believed would be at the end together. But they were. He was caught and it was a big news story at the time and Survivor was very careful ever since. But yet it’s happened again!

  2. AntSurvives – I’m a massive Survivor fan and this is the first I’ve heard of the entire outcome of the season being leaked. How can they leak the winner when it’s not revealed until the live show anyway? For that to happen, a cameraman or one of the very few people privy to the outcome would have to spill the beans and it would the first time that this has happened in 20 seasons. Surely a scandal of that magnitude on one of the most watched shows in the US would be a big news story….

  3. This is not an issue for those of us who successfully remained ignorant of results with entire seasons unscreened. A mere week is chicken feed.

    Anyway, I’d rather have the space of another week in which to savour the season, than have four hours jammed on me at once.

  4. What happened to a bit of self control and staying away from Internet sites that might reveal the survivor winner- not exactly the hardest thing to do.

  5. David it sounds like you aren’t a fan of fastracking from various comments you’ve made. Personally, I believe it’s the greatest thing to happen to Aussie TV in years.
    I think they should have a Survivor night on the Tuesday – we don’t need to see a rerun of Top Gear for one week.

  6. Most Survivor fans already know the results as the entire list of cast-offs right through to the winner was leaked before the show began. So realistically, anybody who’s dying to know already knows. Everyone else is willing to wait the week.

  7. @ Lynn

    But if they put it on after Hey, Hey people would be complaining that they didn’t find out the winner of HvV until after 11:30pm at night, only to be followed by the Reunion going into the following day. ( A reunion I’m more excited for than the finale itself with the stars that will be on the stage)

  8. I’m really loving this seasons H v’s V Survivor and although I can get the episodes online I’ve beliberately not downloaded them just so that I can watch them on Channel Nine,I agree it would be much better to air the finale and reunion on the Wednesday after Hey Hey…..I’ve just got to add if Russell or Parvati win,this season should have been called Villians v’s Dummies.

  9. I’m happy to wait a week. The only problem is I then have to be very very careful to avoid finding out who the winner is before it airs. I have been caught out in the past in relation to other shows just by watching Letterman or Ellen and that is disappointing and really takes the fun out of the finale.

  10. well im a survivor fan from s.1 and i’ve seen it all….. seasons shown weeks late, months late, or not at all…
    but it’s still not really good enough… fans shouldn’t have to put up with a “well it’s better than nothing” scenario…
    channel 9 made a commitment to air this show… and this is the world we live in now… an age of technology where entertainment and news is instant… it has to be instant or it’s old… tv has to learn to adapt in situations like this

  11. 1 week of wait isn’t that bad although airing it the day would be gold, gotta love Russell and Parvati, I hope they battle it out til the end.

  12. Shhh. What ever you do, don’t complain. Don’t make a fuss. Just smile and pretend you don’t mind. Lest Channel Nine revert back to to its old ways of airing Survivor months behind the US.

  13. They could be really innovative and show it on GO then repeat on 9 a week later. Still as a diehard I am prepared to concede and wait a week if it encourages good future time-slots with minimal delay. To be fair 9 have done a good job with this season; which has been a cracker.

  14. Agreed ryaneco – a weeks delay is the least of the problems we’ve had with Survivor over the years. Its possible to avoid spoilers for a week on the net if you have forewarning. I’m just glad Nine have faith in the format again and are putting a bit of effort in. Call me old fashioned but I just like watching it on TV more than downloading.

  15. I think anyone who can’t wait a week for the finale is just impatient.

    This is a far cry from how survivor was treated for many, many seasons on Nine.

  16. I’d love to be a programmer, then perhaps shows would finish and start on time, or close enough to it…. it’s frustrating when my 8:30 show hasn’t started and the 7:30 contestant voting whatever hasn’t even started…

  17. For the people who are actually bothered to watch it with Nine as opposed to downloading, I don’t think they’ll really care. As long as it’s not 7 months after the US, this is gold, Gold for any Australian, non-downloading viewer.

  18. I like the idea where its all made on demand (maybe with the new NBN) and Nine/Seven/Ten act as advertising companies.

    They buy the shows from the US, then have some sort of standard into getting them onto our TV’s, computers, mobiles but with ads inserted into them.

    But sadly that idea will probably never come to fruition.

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