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SCA meets reality show Survivor
Apr. 2nd, 2007 12:13 pm(swiped from a post to the Kingdom of An Tir's mailing list)
Found at http://scatoday.net/node/8360
CBS network scraps production of "Survivor Trimaris"
Submitted by Justin on Sun, 2007/04/01 - 17:24.
Humor | Media | Modern Society | SCAtoday.net | Trimaris
After taping just one episode, the CBS television network has ceased
production of a planned "Survivor Trimaris" edition of its popular
reality TV program, citing "personality conflicts" with cast.
Todalay Cirius, a spokesman for Survivor producer Mark Burnett, says
the creative team thought a season featuring medieval reenactors from
the Society for Creative Anachronism would be a great novelty, but
that in practice it just didn't work out. The show, set in the swamps
of modern-world Florida (USA), pitted sixteen SCA members against the
environment and one another. Cirius says the production team spent
over US$3.5 million setting up three camps (one for the crew, and one
for each of the two "baronies" into which the cast were divided).
Cast members had been carefully selected from audition tapes and
interviews, but CBS says that process failed to predict the
interpersonal crises that eventually caused executives to cut their
losses and cancel the season.
According to Cirius, the cast members apparently acting en masse
refused to accept the original division into two "baronies" (Survivor
usually calls these "tribes", but adapted the terminology to this
season's SCA theme). "Things only got worse from there," he
complained, though he stopped short of blaming the entire failure on
the SCA. "It wasn't really anyone's fault. The whole thing jumped the
shark because of the culture clash between cast and crew and because
we didn't [adequately screen] the contestants." Cirius says CBS
has "learned a lesson here" and that recruitment processes for future
seasons may be modified.
Rather than attempting to explain verbally what happened, Mr. Cirius
very kindly allowed SCAtoday.net and other press representatives to
screen a rough-edited version of that first (and, sadly, last)
episode. Due to legal issues, we were not permitted to retain a copy
of the unreleased show, but we were not restricted in what we could
quote or say from the screening.
The show began in a fairly conventional (for reality TV) way, with
the sixteen contestants being carried into the swamps of central
Florida (in the SCA, Trimaris) on airboats, a special watercraft that
uses a large rear-facing fan to provide propulsion without needing an
underwater propellor, which would become entangled in swamp foliage.
Host Jeff Probst introduced the scenario in the usual way, saying
contestants would find a pre-built (but primitive) camp on each of
two small islands in the swamp. He used a giant "coin", red on one
side and white on the other, to divide contestants one-by-one into
two "baronies". In a variation from previous seasons, the "coin" toss
resulted in two teams of unequal size, with the "Barony of Giyontee"
having nine members and the "Barony of Reptilia" having only seven.
Probst wasted no time in revealing the show's second of several rapid-
fire plot twists. The teams each received the same amount of food,
thus making the difference in team size partially a disadvantage.
There was a some grumbling, but most of the contestants took it in
stride. Then Probst looked them over, complimented them somewhat
mockingly on their choice of garb, and ordered, "Okay, Survivors,
over the side! Giyontee, head east. Reptilia, head west. I'll see you
tomorrow at the first challenge. Get moving!"
That's when the trouble began. Two fighters in armor jumped right
into the muck, and promptly sank up to their waists. One fell over
and couldn't get to his feet, and his face kept going under the muddy
water. A lady in a cotehardie tried to jump off the boat to help him,
but she tripped on the gunwale. Trying to get her balance, she
stepped her full weight on the gunwale, tilting the boat badly. An
airboat is a wide-bottomed boat, and it's doubtful a person could tip
it over, but standing on the side was enough to briefly dunk that
side under the water. The hull partially-filled with muck and water,
and a panic started as the other contestants struggled to keep their
garb and gear dry. It was a lost cause from the beginning, and a
shoving match broke out between two contestants in silk gowns.
One lady in a low-cut gown had an...ahem...cleavage-related incident
that male contestants found entirely more distracting than was safe
under the circumstances. Two of them, already off balance, fell
backward into the water, soaking garb, gear, and selves. An expensive-
looking camera rig, which apparently was supposed to have been behind
the main camera and out of view, toppled forward into the shot of the
main camera, eliciting a stream of profanity from an unseen crewman.
(CBS says that would have been bleeped out if the show had been
released, but they hadn't bothered in this now-throwaway tape. We
were asked not to quote the crewman, as he hadn't signed a release
form.)
Eventually, all the contestants are in the hip-deep water, a lady and
a lord helped the struggling fighter to pull his face out of the
water and regain balance, and the two teams are seen wading off in
opposite directions. The episode then cuts to Reptilia camp, which
consists of a single large pavilion that looked as if it had been
made by Panther Primitives a well-known SCA tent merchant. The
pavilion looked brand-new, but by the time Reptilia's seven "tribe
mates" had settled in, it was spattered with mud in a pattern that
would make most SCA folk hang their heads and cry.
Things weren't much better at Giyontee camp, where an equally-muddy
pavilion served as home for nine contestants. There was some
posturing and bluster over who would sleep where in the tent, because
the pavilion was plenty large for Reptilia's seven but just slightly
too small for Giyontee's nine teammates. Eventually someone named
Master Hillius volunteered to sleep outside, saying he was a hard-
core camper in mundania and an former Navy Seal. That seemed to quiet
things down.
The tape then cuts abruptly to the first reward challenge, in which
the teams were to run an obstacle course to win nothing less than the
other team's pavilion, an unprecedentedly brutal game twist. When
Reptilia handily defeated Giyontee, a scuffle broke out between Lord
Gilus Hesperidius of Giyontee and Lord Philemon of Reptilia, the
former accusing the latter of pushing past him in the obstacle maze.
Probst quickly stepped in, separating the men and pointing out that
pushing and shoving weren't against the rules. A lady from Reptilia,
who may have been a Herald, called an "Oyez!" and ordered her team to
figure out how to get Giyontee's pavilion back to their camp (Probst
had already told them this was their problem, not his).
A gentleman in surprisingly nice garb (considering the venue)
identified himself as "Seneschal of Reptilia" and vied with the
Herald lady to take charge. Things got even uglier when Mistress
Vascan, from Giyontee, turned out to be a tentmaking Laurel and
insisted that Jeff Probst reverse the outcome of the challenge, on
grounds that she and only she was qualified to care for the two
pavilions. Two Knights, one from each team, volunteered to settle the
matter with a re-match by single combat, and surprisingly enough
Probst agreed after stepping off-camera for a few minutes (probably
to consult the show's producers).
The two Knights borrowed muddy armor from the two fighters who had
first jumped into the swamp water, and fashioned "weapons" from
cypress staves. A lady from Giyontee said she was a Marshal, and both
Knights chivalrously agreed to accept her judgment of the bout, which
was to be fought best-three-of-five. The "lay on" was called, and a
closely-fought tourney left Giyontee the winner this time, three to
two. In a remarkably calm display, the Knights shook hands and then
got out of armor.
What happened next was amazing to anyone not in the SCA, and an utter
shock to the show's production team. During the fight, there had been
a fair amount of sidebar-conversation among the spectating team
members. Shortly after the bout's conclusion, and apparently with
support of all assembled, the Herald and the tentmaking Laurel stood
facing Jeff Probst, and the Herald shouted, "Be it known to all
assembled that we, the populace of Reptilia, freely acknowledge the
superior skill in combat of Giyontee." Then the Laurel shouted, "Be
it known that we, the populace of Giyontee, freely accede to the
greater prowess of Reptilia in the gentle art of obstacle courses."
The self-proclaimed Seneschal stood forth then, and said, "Noble
gentles, is it then your wish to declare a truce, and to unite in one
barony to defeat the common enemy?" The two teams shouted "AYE!" in a
loud voice, and then converged on the bewildered Jeff Probst, arguing
and shouting at him.
Probst beat a hasty retreat. The camera is jolted several times, and
burly men wearing t-shirts with "SECURITY" on the back are seen
rushing into the scene between Probst and the SCA folk. No one seems
to have gotten hurt, but it is clear from the chaos on the tape that
things had gone far differently than the show's producers planned.
There is one last sight of the "ECU" on a security guard's shirt,
backed up against the camera, and then the tape ends abruptly.
The reaction of the reporters in the room was mixed, ranging from
stunned silence to laughter. Todalay Cirius, after silencing the room
once again, explained, "As you can see, this isn't something we can
air. The game was basically over after just one episode. Nobody would
watch the rest."
One reporter asked Cirius what the producers would do about their
lost season and the lost revenue, but to his credit Mr. Cirius didn't
seem angry. He said, "Well, three million dollars sounds like a lot
of money to most of us, but it's not a big loss in the entertainment
industry. And you may not realize this, but we tape many months in
advance of the scheduled air date for the show. So this season would
have aired in March 2008. It's not a big secret, though not widely
known, that we also make plans for at least two different Survivor
productions each season. The second production plan is a backup in
case of something terrible, such as if a cast member were to be
seriously injured or killed. Remember that in spite of our
precautions and safety teams, living in the wilderness is still
dangerous. In this case, it turns out that the backup planning was
fortunate."
Mr. Cirius says that CBS is unlikely to try another Survivor season
with reenactors, SCA or otherwise, though he didn't definitely rule
out another attempt with a different group. He would not disclose the
theme of the backup-plan season, the one that will actually air in
spring 2008, but hinted that it involved a tropical climate and
people of widely-divergent personalities, all of whom look good in
swimwear.
Found at http://scatoday.net/node/8360
CBS network scraps production of "Survivor Trimaris"
Submitted by Justin on Sun, 2007/04/01 - 17:24.
Humor | Media | Modern Society | SCAtoday.net | Trimaris
After taping just one episode, the CBS television network has ceased
production of a planned "Survivor Trimaris" edition of its popular
reality TV program, citing "personality conflicts" with cast.
Todalay Cirius, a spokesman for Survivor producer Mark Burnett, says
the creative team thought a season featuring medieval reenactors from
the Society for Creative Anachronism would be a great novelty, but
that in practice it just didn't work out. The show, set in the swamps
of modern-world Florida (USA), pitted sixteen SCA members against the
environment and one another. Cirius says the production team spent
over US$3.5 million setting up three camps (one for the crew, and one
for each of the two "baronies" into which the cast were divided).
Cast members had been carefully selected from audition tapes and
interviews, but CBS says that process failed to predict the
interpersonal crises that eventually caused executives to cut their
losses and cancel the season.
According to Cirius, the cast members apparently acting en masse
refused to accept the original division into two "baronies" (Survivor
usually calls these "tribes", but adapted the terminology to this
season's SCA theme). "Things only got worse from there," he
complained, though he stopped short of blaming the entire failure on
the SCA. "It wasn't really anyone's fault. The whole thing jumped the
shark because of the culture clash between cast and crew and because
we didn't [adequately screen] the contestants." Cirius says CBS
has "learned a lesson here" and that recruitment processes for future
seasons may be modified.
Rather than attempting to explain verbally what happened, Mr. Cirius
very kindly allowed SCAtoday.net and other press representatives to
screen a rough-edited version of that first (and, sadly, last)
episode. Due to legal issues, we were not permitted to retain a copy
of the unreleased show, but we were not restricted in what we could
quote or say from the screening.
The show began in a fairly conventional (for reality TV) way, with
the sixteen contestants being carried into the swamps of central
Florida (in the SCA, Trimaris) on airboats, a special watercraft that
uses a large rear-facing fan to provide propulsion without needing an
underwater propellor, which would become entangled in swamp foliage.
Host Jeff Probst introduced the scenario in the usual way, saying
contestants would find a pre-built (but primitive) camp on each of
two small islands in the swamp. He used a giant "coin", red on one
side and white on the other, to divide contestants one-by-one into
two "baronies". In a variation from previous seasons, the "coin" toss
resulted in two teams of unequal size, with the "Barony of Giyontee"
having nine members and the "Barony of Reptilia" having only seven.
Probst wasted no time in revealing the show's second of several rapid-
fire plot twists. The teams each received the same amount of food,
thus making the difference in team size partially a disadvantage.
There was a some grumbling, but most of the contestants took it in
stride. Then Probst looked them over, complimented them somewhat
mockingly on their choice of garb, and ordered, "Okay, Survivors,
over the side! Giyontee, head east. Reptilia, head west. I'll see you
tomorrow at the first challenge. Get moving!"
That's when the trouble began. Two fighters in armor jumped right
into the muck, and promptly sank up to their waists. One fell over
and couldn't get to his feet, and his face kept going under the muddy
water. A lady in a cotehardie tried to jump off the boat to help him,
but she tripped on the gunwale. Trying to get her balance, she
stepped her full weight on the gunwale, tilting the boat badly. An
airboat is a wide-bottomed boat, and it's doubtful a person could tip
it over, but standing on the side was enough to briefly dunk that
side under the water. The hull partially-filled with muck and water,
and a panic started as the other contestants struggled to keep their
garb and gear dry. It was a lost cause from the beginning, and a
shoving match broke out between two contestants in silk gowns.
One lady in a low-cut gown had an...ahem...cleavage-related incident
that male contestants found entirely more distracting than was safe
under the circumstances. Two of them, already off balance, fell
backward into the water, soaking garb, gear, and selves. An expensive-
looking camera rig, which apparently was supposed to have been behind
the main camera and out of view, toppled forward into the shot of the
main camera, eliciting a stream of profanity from an unseen crewman.
(CBS says that would have been bleeped out if the show had been
released, but they hadn't bothered in this now-throwaway tape. We
were asked not to quote the crewman, as he hadn't signed a release
form.)
Eventually, all the contestants are in the hip-deep water, a lady and
a lord helped the struggling fighter to pull his face out of the
water and regain balance, and the two teams are seen wading off in
opposite directions. The episode then cuts to Reptilia camp, which
consists of a single large pavilion that looked as if it had been
made by Panther Primitives a well-known SCA tent merchant. The
pavilion looked brand-new, but by the time Reptilia's seven "tribe
mates" had settled in, it was spattered with mud in a pattern that
would make most SCA folk hang their heads and cry.
Things weren't much better at Giyontee camp, where an equally-muddy
pavilion served as home for nine contestants. There was some
posturing and bluster over who would sleep where in the tent, because
the pavilion was plenty large for Reptilia's seven but just slightly
too small for Giyontee's nine teammates. Eventually someone named
Master Hillius volunteered to sleep outside, saying he was a hard-
core camper in mundania and an former Navy Seal. That seemed to quiet
things down.
The tape then cuts abruptly to the first reward challenge, in which
the teams were to run an obstacle course to win nothing less than the
other team's pavilion, an unprecedentedly brutal game twist. When
Reptilia handily defeated Giyontee, a scuffle broke out between Lord
Gilus Hesperidius of Giyontee and Lord Philemon of Reptilia, the
former accusing the latter of pushing past him in the obstacle maze.
Probst quickly stepped in, separating the men and pointing out that
pushing and shoving weren't against the rules. A lady from Reptilia,
who may have been a Herald, called an "Oyez!" and ordered her team to
figure out how to get Giyontee's pavilion back to their camp (Probst
had already told them this was their problem, not his).
A gentleman in surprisingly nice garb (considering the venue)
identified himself as "Seneschal of Reptilia" and vied with the
Herald lady to take charge. Things got even uglier when Mistress
Vascan, from Giyontee, turned out to be a tentmaking Laurel and
insisted that Jeff Probst reverse the outcome of the challenge, on
grounds that she and only she was qualified to care for the two
pavilions. Two Knights, one from each team, volunteered to settle the
matter with a re-match by single combat, and surprisingly enough
Probst agreed after stepping off-camera for a few minutes (probably
to consult the show's producers).
The two Knights borrowed muddy armor from the two fighters who had
first jumped into the swamp water, and fashioned "weapons" from
cypress staves. A lady from Giyontee said she was a Marshal, and both
Knights chivalrously agreed to accept her judgment of the bout, which
was to be fought best-three-of-five. The "lay on" was called, and a
closely-fought tourney left Giyontee the winner this time, three to
two. In a remarkably calm display, the Knights shook hands and then
got out of armor.
What happened next was amazing to anyone not in the SCA, and an utter
shock to the show's production team. During the fight, there had been
a fair amount of sidebar-conversation among the spectating team
members. Shortly after the bout's conclusion, and apparently with
support of all assembled, the Herald and the tentmaking Laurel stood
facing Jeff Probst, and the Herald shouted, "Be it known to all
assembled that we, the populace of Reptilia, freely acknowledge the
superior skill in combat of Giyontee." Then the Laurel shouted, "Be
it known that we, the populace of Giyontee, freely accede to the
greater prowess of Reptilia in the gentle art of obstacle courses."
The self-proclaimed Seneschal stood forth then, and said, "Noble
gentles, is it then your wish to declare a truce, and to unite in one
barony to defeat the common enemy?" The two teams shouted "AYE!" in a
loud voice, and then converged on the bewildered Jeff Probst, arguing
and shouting at him.
Probst beat a hasty retreat. The camera is jolted several times, and
burly men wearing t-shirts with "SECURITY" on the back are seen
rushing into the scene between Probst and the SCA folk. No one seems
to have gotten hurt, but it is clear from the chaos on the tape that
things had gone far differently than the show's producers planned.
There is one last sight of the "ECU" on a security guard's shirt,
backed up against the camera, and then the tape ends abruptly.
The reaction of the reporters in the room was mixed, ranging from
stunned silence to laughter. Todalay Cirius, after silencing the room
once again, explained, "As you can see, this isn't something we can
air. The game was basically over after just one episode. Nobody would
watch the rest."
One reporter asked Cirius what the producers would do about their
lost season and the lost revenue, but to his credit Mr. Cirius didn't
seem angry. He said, "Well, three million dollars sounds like a lot
of money to most of us, but it's not a big loss in the entertainment
industry. And you may not realize this, but we tape many months in
advance of the scheduled air date for the show. So this season would
have aired in March 2008. It's not a big secret, though not widely
known, that we also make plans for at least two different Survivor
productions each season. The second production plan is a backup in
case of something terrible, such as if a cast member were to be
seriously injured or killed. Remember that in spite of our
precautions and safety teams, living in the wilderness is still
dangerous. In this case, it turns out that the backup planning was
fortunate."
Mr. Cirius says that CBS is unlikely to try another Survivor season
with reenactors, SCA or otherwise, though he didn't definitely rule
out another attempt with a different group. He would not disclose the
theme of the backup-plan season, the one that will actually air in
spring 2008, but hinted that it involved a tropical climate and
people of widely-divergent personalities, all of whom look good in
swimwear.
