As if it weren’t bad enough that fans of the South African version of Survivor already had to give up one evening a week for their reality fix, they now have even more to look forward to on the web.
For the first time in South African television history, exclusive ”webisodes” created for the internet are being produced for the second season of Survivor.
M-Net will produce weekly short-format episodes of Survivor exclusively for the website. Directed by series director Donald Clarke, the webisodes are said to have the same production quality as that of the full-length television show.
”We are fully committed to taking our brands on to new platforms and to developing them in new and innovative ways. We see our shows as entertainment experiences, not just as weekly television shows,” Jason Probert, M-Net’s head of new media, told the Mail & Guardian Online on Thursday.
Survivor viewers will be able to see ”director’s cut” footage that won’t feature in the television series. ”With a show like Survivor there is so much footage that it simply cannot be packaged into an hour of traditional television. However, with the rapid growth of broadband in South Africa, there is ample opportunity for viewers to enjoy more of the Survivor experience on their PCs,” Probert said.
The ”director’s cuts” of the webisodes will be three to four minutes long and will be available immediately after the television broadcast of each episode.
The webisodes’ content is not limited to the ”director’s cut” footage; there will also be behind-the-scenes videos of each week’s reward challenges. ”In the week leading up to each episode, viewers will be able to see what the survivors are going to be challenged with,” Probert said.
What’s more, the webisodes will feature extended interviews with each ousted survivor, conducted moments after his or her flame is extinguished.
Probert said that M-Net has also devised a web-based true-or-false game using video footage of each survivor. ”Each week, each survivor is asked a question and they provide both a true and a false answer. The game involves deciding which answer is true and which is false. Survivor is a show about trust, and we wanted viewers to get an understanding of how difficult it is to judge the survivors.”
Viewers can find out more about survivors’ personalities and select their own teams for a Fantasy Survivor game, also on the website.
Probert believes that the Survivor webisodes will be popular because the internet is a different medium from television. ”We found that online viewers want to snack rather than gorge on a long video,” he said.