The 7th season of Survivor South Africa, entitled Survivor SA: Island of Secrets is set and being filmed on location using the islands of Samoa, east of Australia in the Polynesian region of the South Pacific Ocean.
Last month TVwithThinus dropped some hints about the mystery locale where the South African production company Afrokaans, again producing the Banijay Group's Survivor format show for its second consecutive time, stranded 21 contestants for its 7th season, again filming for 39 days like the previous season.
There's a big difference between the ages of the contestants this season - there are very young contestants and there are much older contestants as well.
With Nico Panagio once again back as Survivor SA host, the new season is set on a location further away from South Africa than ever before, with the show that previously had exotic set-piece seasons playing out as far away as Panama, the Maldives, Malaysia and even the Philippines in the previous 6th season.
With a rough time difference of between 10 to 11 hours compared to South Africa, it takes the production crew, filming equipment and contestants between 4 to 5 different - including extremely long - flights just to reach the fantasy island locale in its far-flung time zone.
The travel time? Roughly over a 24-hour day and a half spent on planes and waiting in international airports for flight connections to get there.
"What we can tell viewers, is that they must be prepared for twists and turns, unlike anything they've seen on the show before. It’s called Island of Secrets, after all," says Lani Lombard, M-Net's head of publicity.
On Friday M-Net released a video with Survivor SA host Nico Panagio announcing Samoa as the location of the 7th season of the reality show.
Survivor South Africa: Island of Secrets will start on M-Net on Thursday 16 May after the conclusion of The Bachelor South Africa on 9 May.
