Survivor

Survivor 17, or Survivor: Gabon, or Survivor: Gabon, Earth's Last Eden, whatever you feel like calling it, has encountered some problems in pre-production, according to super-host Jeff Probst.  The West African nation of Gabon is one of the more remote and difficult locations in Survivor's history, according to Probst.  Animals, a fallen crane, and a long shipping delay are severely affecting the show's production.  Though Probst assures the media that Survivor: Gabon will go off as planned (filming is slated to begin later this month), the pre-production hiccups will likely hit the crew the hardest – the crew's quarters have not yet been built, which means everyone will be living in tents, for now. 

In addition to the lack of housing for the crew, Survivor is having a difficult time dealing with the animal life.  Says Probst, “We have a danger problem with animals that we're trying to figure out how to handle. There's so much truly wild life out there, we're not sure what to do. We don't want the animals around for safety reasons, but we'd love to have a hippo sneak in every so often. I just got a call from our executive producer that we've got hippo tracks at base camp."  Also, a shipping crate holding $100,000 of food has gone missing.

Hippos are one of the top 20 coolest animals known to man (according to myself, though I am in no way an animal expert).  The more hippos, the better, is what I always say.  This is the show's second trip to Africa, the first one being something of a failure.  Not really in terms of the game (it was a solid season), but the terrain was difficult and the contestants had a brutal 30 or so days out there.  From the looks of it, Gabon should be much more livable, though the animals could be an issue.  Contestants being eaten by lions would be a big PR mess. 

The seventeenth season of Survivor will air Thursdays at 8pm on CBS this Fall.


-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
Source: CNN
(Image Courtesy of CBS)