Survivor : The Ultimate Game (Paperback)

~ (Author), Martin Dugard (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

After months of tighter-than-CIA secrecy, here is the exclusive inside story of the TV smash Survivor. Its creator, Mark Burnett, calls the show "Gilligan's Island meets Lord of the Flies meets Ten Little Indians meets The Real World," but you knew that. What's new about this book is the view from the other side of the lens. While the contestants gobbled wriggling three-inch beetles and savaged each other, Burnett and company were feverishly running the show and writing this tell-all account. It gives you a better feel than TV can for the natural setting: pristine beaches infested with skin-burrowing bugs that scarred "coquette" Colleen for life; Malaysian field rats attracted by the survivors' food and crawling over them all night; six-foot, yellow-and-black-banded sea kraits (snakes) devouring the rats; 300-pound pythons reeking of rotting meat, poised to drop from trees and eat people.

Except for the crew's hands-down favorite, U.S. Air Force survival trainer Gretchen ("She was wholesome, she was a survivalist, she looked great in a bathing suit"), most of the contestants were nice as pythons. Laid-back Gervase said, "Nothing's dumber than a woman, except maybe a cow," amusing "alpha male" Joel and enraging Jenna, Colleen, and Gretchen (IQ 142). Greg, who stank more than others because he slept in the jungle and got more bug bites, infuriated show host Jeff Probst. Despite "long nights cuddling with Colleen," Greg betrayed her to flirt with the aptly named winner, Rich. "It's like a kitten you find," Greg says of Colleen. "You give it a name, like Fluffy ... you're starving. So you look right in the kitten's eyes and break its neck. Nothing personal." The authors compare gay Rich and homophobe Rudy to the Odd Couple, and Dirk and Sean to "a pair of Malaysian field rats trying to stand up to a yellow-banded krait. The krait, of course was Susan."

The Pagong tribe was young, strong, lazy, and quarrelsome--"MTV's Beach House." The Tagi were older, but a far better team, and so more successful. And the most consistent, cynical, and adaptive contestant won.

Survivor is not just great gossip; it's the most fascinating and massively popular psychology experiment ever conducted. --Tim Appelo

Product Description

You've seen the show, now read the book!

Survivor is a gripping day-by-day account of life on Pulau Tiga as sixteen men and women compete for food, shelter, friendships, and one million dollars. From the shipwreck that signals the beginning of life on the island to the final Tribal Council meeting 39 days later, readers are given complete access to the Survivor experience including dozens of behind-the-scenes photographs and ends with a penetrating interview with the Survivor that completes the story.

Written by the show's executive producer Mark Burnett with acclaimed adventure writer Martin Dugard, Survivor is an unforgettable look into a winner-take-all world driven by contests and conspiracies that reads like an adventure novel. It includes insights and observations about the contestants, the host, the production crew, and anyone else who sets foot on the island--no one is immune. Pre-order your copy now--the Survivor experience isn't complete without it!

Praise for Martin Dugard's previous work:

"Crisp vivid language...transports the armchair adventurer from the jungle muck to the mountain peak." --Esquire

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: TV Books; 1st THUS edition (September 12, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1575001438
• ISBN-13: 978-1575001432
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (73 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #147,957 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars For hard-core Survivor fans only, September 14, 2000

By	Book Woman (Oklahoma) - See all my reviews

This is a book that was obviously put together in a tremendous hurry. The grainy, black-and white photos of the cast members are oddly placed, with a photo of Stacy showing up in the text long after she's been kicked off the island. The photos are not captioned, so unless you watched most of the episodes, you'll have no idea who is who.

There are a few interesting "behind the scenes" details, but not any that you won't hear regurgitated by the entertainment press. The author (Burnett? Dugard?) indulges in a lot of flip descriptions of castaways, most of which struck me as entirely too harsh. The challenges are not described in much detail (I had hoped for some insight as to how they were conceived) and either cast members are deliberatly and tellingly misquoted, or the author is mixing together aired dialogue and dialogue that was never broadcast.

Survivor was an intriguing, well-edited television program that was frequently compelling and always entertaining. I wish I could say the same for this companion book.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Outwit. Outlast. Outread., September 15, 2000

By	Timothy P. Sandifer "?" (Godfrey, IL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As others have stated, this was a quick read. Rarely do I finish a book in one day, but my love for the show and interest in this 'behind the scenes' written companion wouldn't let me put it down.

Lots of good stuff here. I enjoyed the frankness of the author/creator of the show. I wouldn't have expected him to be as candid as he was here (voicing strong opinions about the castaways). I'm sure there are things he is still choosing to hide from the general public, but for the most part, I'm satisfied with the amount of 'new information' I have gained.

As others reviewers have touched on, I too was disappointed that the book seemed to include fewer details as it pressed on. Several of the challenges were glossed over or mentioned after the fact. The final vote, which lasted about an hour on television was only covered on about 2 1/2 pages of the book (hardly the 'expanded treatment' promised by the back cover). Clearly these were the most dramatic moments on the show. And for all the psychoanalyzing this author does in other parts of the book, he barely mentions the infamous Sue Speech (which, to me, begs for in-depth analysis).

Something that also distracted me from time to time was the abundance of errors (spelling errors, spacing errors, misplaced names). I just chalked it up to pressing deadlines, but still... (there were 'editors' right?)

All in all, I was pleased. I think anyone, like myself, who was completely captivated by the show from day one... or even those who jumped on the bandwagon later in the series... would benefit from reading this book.

...Oh yeah, and I really wish there were more pictures of Colleen. Oh, my sweet Colleen. Ahhh.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Fun But Less Than Informative Book, November 23, 2000

By	Daniel Jolley "darkgenius" (Shelby, North Carolina USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Needless to say, if you weren't captivated by the Survivor television show, you probably don't want to read this book. Even for Survivor diehards like myself, however, this book is not a perfect gift from the jungle gods. It does give the reader some great insight into the production side of the story, which is very interesting. As an example, I was quite surprised to learn that the Malaysian bar Kelly was taken to as a reward was actually a building on Pulau Tiga, improvised on the fly when the producers learned that the castaways were expecting something "big" for the reward to that particular challenge---the original reward being just a can of beer, pure and simple (this after Sean's night on a yacht with his father in the previous reward challenge). What were they thinking? On the down side, I was disappointed to find that many incidents I knew from the show were simply glossed over or ignored altogether. Kelly's "loss" to Gervase in the boating challenge--not mentioned; Rudy's incredible gaffe at the last challenge--mentioned in passing. The story of the final tribal council, a time of incredible tension, is given two pages. Sue's speech is barely mentioned, and not only is there no discussion of who voted for whom, there is not even a breakdown of who voted for whom. If you didn't watch the show, you will not find out in this book which four voted for Rich and which three voted for Kelly, let alone why they did so. This should have been the longest chapter in the book, yet the authors sprint through it almost recklessly. That is the biggest disappointment I felt in reading this; in the story of the last three days on the island, we could have really learned who these people were and how the 39 days on the island had changed them emotionally, yet that story is not here. I must also add that the editing, at least in my early printing of the book, is horrible. I understand that this book was probably rushed to the printing press, but I have to ask if anyone proofread the final printing at all. There are a large number of errors here--words jumbled around, apostrophes in the strangest of places, etc. This isn't War and Peace--one person could have proofread this printing in one day and eliminated dozens of mistakes. All in all, I must say that only diehard fans should read this book; anyone wanting to really understand the individuals in this drama, though, would do better to watch all of the episodes over again because this book does not provide much insight into their natures.