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It all began in the ’90s, with MTV’s “The Real World.”
MTV promised its young viewers “seven strangers picked to live in a house and have their lives taped, to see what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real.”
With each new season came a new cast of young adults in an exotic house in a major U.S. city.
Next came “Road Rules,” a “Real World” on wheels. Take away the big, beautiful house and give them a Winnebago. Then send them out on crazy missions with the chance to win money and prizes.
Shows like these propelled MTV to the top network ranking among 12- to 24-year-olds for 13 consecutive years.
Now CBS has capitalized on society’s voyeurism with the summer hit “Survivor.”
Filmed from March 13 through April 20 on Pulau Tiga, an island in the South China Sea off the coast of Borneo, the show has been this summer’s biggest hit, averaging 25 million viewers.
The show began with 16 strangers, divided into two “tribes” of eight, dropped on the island. Every couple of days, the tribes competed in various challenges. The winning team took back a survival prize, such as waterproof matches or live chickens, and received immunity from the Tribal Council.
The losing team had to visit the council and vote one of its own members off the island. This week, some of the people voted off the island will return for the final show to decide who among the remaining survivors gets the $1 million prize.
The special two-hour finale, airing at 8 tonight on WBTV-Channel 3, is expected to draw an even larger audience.
Ace and TJ, KISS Radio 95.1’s morning disc jockeys, capitalized on the “Survivor” craze this summer with their own “Survive Our Island” contest. Ten strangers from Rowan and Mecklenburg counties agreed to stay on the old Smurf Island at Paramount’s Carowinds.
The radio station got the attention it hoped for.
“Everybody was talking about it, so we decided to jump on the bandwagon,” said the show’s producer, Pete Herrick, also known as “Yankee Pete.” “People seem to have a fascination with watching other people’s lives.”
He said the station’s Web site (www.kiss951.com) recorded more than 600,000 viewers, “well over a 1,000 percent increase,” just in that week.
“It’s addicting to know who’s going to be (kicked off) next,” Herrick said.
The radio show’s crew tried to make their contest as close to the television show as possible. But according to contest participant Greg Hinson, 30, of Cleveland, there was no comparison.
“It was nothing like the TV series,” he said. “It’s a walk in the park compared to what those people went through.”
Although the contestants were fed MREs (the military’s Meals Ready to Eat) and cold Dinty Moore stew, Hinson said, “It wasn’t that bad, to be honest.”
And unlike the television show, the radio contest was live. Participants spoke privately to the DJs, so the listeners could hear but the other contestants could not.
“Anything that was said (in private) was repeated on the air,” said contestant Tim Fitzgerald, 36, of Salisbury.
Another difference was that, with the radio version, people would visit Carowinds and shout things to contestants on Smurf Island.
“It really wasn’t an isolated situation,” Fitzgerald said. The ferry that floats by the island comes close enough to allow passengers to talk to contestants, he added. And contestants were allowed visitors.
Fitzgerald’s wife, Robin, and his stepdaughters, Katie, 11, and Misty, 17, and two of their friends visited him during his week on the island.
“It was a nice surprise,” he said.
Like the TV version, though, the radio station’s competition revolved around interpersonal skills.
Hinson, who was the fourth contestant voted off, said he found the competition difficult because the contestants didn’t know each other. He said they had to be nice to everyone to “survive” the vote.
His group, the Pong tribe, initially agreed to vote off whichever member caused them to lose each challenge, he said. But when the time came, he felt the others voted against him because they thought he was a threat.
“The reason I was voted off was because I was too confident,” he said. Fitzgerald agrees.
“Greg should have been around on the last day without a doubt,” said Fitzgerald, who survived until the final day. “He seemed like a real team player,”
Fitzgerald made it to the final four — with two people left on each team.
“I saw it coming,” he said. He felt sure if the other team of two men won, they would vote him off. He said his teammate, a woman, was less of a threat to the other two men.
Though neither of the local contestants got the prize money, they came away with new friends.
Hinson and his wife, Stacey, have since gone out with another contestant from the show. And Fitzgerald has stayed in touch with “Psycho Sarge,” a physical trainer from Charlotte.
“I may never see them again, but they made lasting impressions,” Fitzgerald said of the other contestants.
So who were these Rowan County contestants?
Their “survivor” names each tell an interesting tale. Hinson, known as “Shot-At-Greg” during the contest, is a drywall contractor.
Why the nickname?
Remember the June incident in Cleveland when a man climbed into a tree and shot at a sheriff’s deputy? Hinson said the man was a former employee and had intended to shoot at Hinson.
The radio hosts called Fitzgerald “Teacher Tim.” A physical education teacher at Knollwood and Mount Ulla elementary schools, he also has a DJ business on the side.
Why did Hinson and Fitzgerald step up for Ace and TJ’s challenge?
“For the money, of course,” Hinson acknowledged.
Fitzgerald said the contest would have enabled him to make a big dent in a $14,000 debt he incurred five years ago for the treatment of his wife’s cancer. When he was kicked off, the radio crew’s mood was solemn, considering Fitzgerald’s motivation.
But then listeners began calling in, pledging money for the Fitzgeralds. The couple hesitated to accept the money at first.
“When I wrote in to apply, I didn’t realize this would become a part of the story,” Fitzgerald said. “I wanted to earn the money.”
But they did accept in the end.
“Hopefully, someday we can give back in some way,” Fitzgerald said.
Producer Herrick said the donations have not been totaled.
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