articles
May 3, 2001
The Last Survivor Episode
by Barbara Fletcher
This is it. The last show. The end of our beloved Kuchas and Ogakors. A goodbye to our virtual second
home: the Outback.
We've laughed. We've cried. We've survived -- 13 episodes, that is. And now it's down to the final
count: either Tina, Colby, or Keith will walk away tonight with one milllion
dollars.
It's the Survivor two-hour finale tonight, starting at 8:00 PM, and this season has a new twist:
the tally of the jury's final votes will be done live on television. That means that even though the
season was taped last fall, the final two Survivors do not know who won; they will be finding out at
the same time as the audience, Jeff Probst, and yes, apparently even Mark Burnett and CBS.
Which all seems somewhat anticlimatic. Wouldn't there be more drama if the winner was revealed immediately
following the 42 days of near-starvation, dehydration, sleep-deprivation, and hard-core outwitting,
outlasting, and outplaying?
C'mon. We want to see the sheer anguish and elation of being the penultimate and the ultimate
Survivor -- while the Outback grit is still in their teeth and the skin is hanging from their
shrivelled muscles and boney frames.
Tonight they will have had time to wash-up, get some sleep, fatten up a little, and lose their
great Outback tan.
And how will the last-minute announcement affect their appearance on the live reunion show -- which
immediately follows the two-hour finale. The Survivors will have had just a few minutes to digest the
news (i.e. how the jury voted) and will not have had any time to react or prepare a face to meet
the camera.
But I digress. It's still all terribly exciting. And what should prove interesting are the Tribal
Council speeches by the Final Two and the jury of their fellow tribe members: Elisabeth, Rodger, Amber,
Nick, Jerri, and Alicia.
Recall Susan Hawk's infamous last words to Kelly, and imagine what Jerri can conjure.
Regardless, it is a Survivor-packed night on CBS: the action starts with the two-hour final
Survivor Episode from 8:00-10:00, the reunion show from 10:00-11:00, and a cast appearance on
David Letterman at 11:35.
Still can't get enough? The following Thursday, May 10, catch the one-hour CBS special Survivor: Back
from the Outback where the show follows the 16 contestants around with
cameras as they return home to a less-than-normal life of Survivor fame.
Also on May 10, CTV will air an episode of
The Weakest Link featuring a show-down of Survivors from the first season.
And when all the Survivor shows have passed us by, we will certainly see their faces on various
Reebok, Visa, Aztec, Doritos, and Mountain Dew products and commercials.