Over the last 26 years, “Survivor” has proven itself to be one of the most enduring and successful reality television shows. Now into its 50th season, the show continues to draw in audiences and test the abilities of castaways.
One of the key ingredients into what makes “Survivor” such an appealing show are the iconic challenges featured in episodes to determine the physical and mental capabilities of those taking part. But what many people might not know is how many of these challenges were created and the strange things that inspired them.
Now, co-executive producer John Kirhoffer and supervising producer Christopher Marchand have lifted the lid on how they came up with some of the bizarre challenges on “Survivor” in an interview with Parade.
‘Survivor’ Challenges Can Be Inspired By Real Life
For the Jail Break challenge, which was first seen in “Survivor: Thailand” but has since become a popular fixture throughout the series, the inspiration came from “The Andy Griffith Show.” The challenge features players attempting to construct a long pole out of a collection of materials so that they can collect keys to unlock their prison cell.
According to Kirhoffer, it was based on a scene from the classic television show. “I thought back to the old Otis the drunk in The Andy Griffith Show, when he tried to get the key off the wall,” he said.
Meanwhile, Beyond the Tuna is a challenge that made its debut in “Survivor: Edge of Extinction” and sees groups of players pulling a boat holding some of their teammates as they swim to objectives. Fitness guru Jack LaLanne was a key motivator for Kirhoffer when he was coming up with ideas for a boat challenge. He cites a video of LaLanne pulling 70 boats by himself as part of his 70th birthday celebration as the inspiration behind the challenge.
As you might have guessed, the challenge It’s a Long Way to the Top has a rock and roll influence. The crate smashing game sees tribe members throwing boxes off a roof to collect items to use as ammunition to throw at the enemy team.
Kirhoffer reveals that he was reading an issue of music magazine Rolling Stone and saw an article about how old rock bands would often cause damage to hotels when inspiration struck. “They were talking about the heyday of Led Zeppelin and Van Halen,” he recalls. “And that they would throw televisions, and they would throw anything out of hotel windows to watch them smash on the ground.”
‘Survivor’ Itself Can Also Be A Source For New Challenges
For Roll With It, the team actually took inspiration from how the production team built giant boulders for other challenges using spheres made out of interlocking bars. Kirhoffer explained, “At some point in Samoa, we were looking at these big rings, thinking, ‘What if you got inside? What if you put somebody inside this sphere?’ And then we came up with the footholds and the straps.
Teeter Tower first appeared in “Survivor: South Pacific” as a version of House of Cards. Marchand explains that he was walking through the challenge graveyard at the production office with art director Dax Pointon, where previously created challenge items and props are discarded, when the idea hit them.
“It was the first time I took a walk in the graveyard with Dax,” he Marchand recounts. “And we had these teeter totters. And we were like, ‘Well, what if we play with these things? And then what else do we like? Well, we like the house of cards. So can we make something out of this?’ And Dax said, ‘I think we can make something out of this.'”
