by Thinus Ferreira
The season finale of Survivor South Africa: Immunity Island on Thursday 16 September on M-Net (DStv 101) will be a toned-down tribal because of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic with the reunion episode and winner's announcement that will be a pre-recorded episode with as few people as possible.
The Afrokaans production of the final episode of the 8th season of Survivor SA: Immunity Island on 16 September on M-Net won't be a live broadcast, will be pre-recording set to take place in Cape Town on a closed set and not the Eastern Cape or its Wild Coast region where the season played out, and is also doing away with the in-studio audience, media attendance, the in-person press conference and sponsors.
Plans for the usual Survivor SA "pre-event" where special guests mingled before the live broadcast, as well as the "afterparty" where the latest season's castaways celebrated along with castaways from previous seasons, sponsors, the media and other invited guests, have also been axed.
Instead, M-Net executives made the decision to close out the highly-regarded current season of Survivor SA with a more "low-key" pre-recorded reunion show finale for DStv subscribers - a move that will dampen some of the usual hype and the level of "live broadcast" excitement around the show's finale that is customarily regarded as so-called "appointment live-event television".
The end of previous seasons of Survivor SA saw finales broadcast live on M-Net from both Johannesburg and later from Cape Town, with themed Survivor SA afterparties over years held adjacent to the studio venues.
These sought-after Survivor SA celebrations where Survivor SA alumni mingled, proudly wore their buffs and swopped stories and selfies, followed after in-person press conferences where the media got the opportunity to put questions to the top castaways, producers and M-Net executives.
M-Net decision to vote a live finale broadcast for Survivor SA: Immunity Island off the TV island, in turn led to the decision to axe the in-studio audience primarily because of two reasons: To keep the winner a secret and because of Covid-19.
The Survivor SA finale in-studio audience - always comprising of current season castaway family members, media, lucky DStv subscribers who won tickets with even their children in tow, as well as sponsors - always found out the winner at the same time during the linear broadcast when host Nico Panagio took out and revealed and counted the final votes.
Now everyone will watch from home since M-Net and Afrokaans can't risk someone accidentally or on purpose leaking the winner name during the period after which the Survivor SA: Immunity Island finale is pre-recorded and the broadcast date on 16 September - even if everyone going on set signs non-disclosure agreements (NDAs).
The 20 castaways of the season already signed NDAs as part of their Survivor SA: Immunity Island contract and will face immense legal action should anyone of them leak the winner before it's announced during the finale.
M-Net tells TVwithThinus that "the channel has made the decision for the finale to be pre-recorded, and not a live event as per previous seasons" and that the finale will be recorded in Cape Town where the last few seasons had their final episode.
"Due to Covid-19 and the risk of the winner being leaked before the finale airs, there will be no studio audience," says M-Net which confirms that there will be no studio audience, no media and no sponsors present.
"All castaways will be invited to the finale," says M-Net. "A physical set will be built which will be a loose replication of the set from the Wild Coast in keeping with the 8th season of Survivor SA's look and feel."
"Due to Covid-19, the finale will be very low-key this season. It will be pre-recorded with no studio audience and there will be no pre/after events as per previous seasons."
