Format

The BBC in the UK has confirmed entertainment format Survivor will be returning to the UK after a 20-year hiatus.

The format, which last aired in 2002 on UK network ITV, will be produced by Remarkable Entertainment, the UK-based prodco owned by format owners Banijay.

The UK reboot will consist of a 16 x 60-minute first season and features 20 contestants split into two tribes, who then face a range of physical and psychological challenges. Following a number of eliminations, the tribes eventually merge before one person takes away a cash prize.

While Survivor failed to make much impact on its first airing in the UK two decades ago, the format – created by Charlie Parsons and acquired by Banijay in 2017, as revealed by TBI – is a global hit.

Reports of Survivor’s return to the UK, in addition to the BBC’s commissioning of Gladiator and ITV’s new season of Big Brother, prompted Channel 4’s content boss, Ian Katz, to label the rebooting of formats as a “depressing” trend at the Edinburgh TV Festival last month.