Survivor's next edition will reportedly be going where no American network television series has gone before: China.
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Chinese government restrictions and logistical issues have historically made it difficult for American entertainment companies to film in the country, however with a booming ecomony and the 2008 Beijing Olympics on the horizon, China has reportedly begun to adopt a more open policy.
Recently some American movies, including The Painted Veil, a 2006 Warner Brothers film that starred Edward Norton and Naomi Watts as a 1920's English couple living in China, have broken new ground by filming entirely in the country. However according to Reuters, The Painted Veil's production was not without controversy, as Chinese government overseers who had final say over the film's content objected to several scenes, resulting in "tense negotiations" between the Chinese officials and the movie's cast and crew.
Although China's 18,000 kilometer coastline includes thousands of islands, according to Variety, Survivor's fifteenth edition will film in a non-island setting -- a move that would make it the first Survivor edition in four seasons (since 2005's Survivor: Guatemala installment) to not film in a tropical island location.
In a separate development that would appear to quash recent rumors that Survivor's next edition might be a second All-Stars edition, Survivor host Jeff Probst has also revealed that semifinalist interviews for Survivor's fifteenth edition took place in Los Angeles this week.
"We were in Survivor casting yesterday," Probst told Live with Regis and Kelly co-host Kelly Ripa during a guest co-host appearance on Tuesday's Live broadcast. "I just woke up an hour ago," said Probst as he explained he had just flown to New York via an overnight "red eye" flight from Los Angeles.
"We end up with these hundred people and they get flown out to LA and we sit in this hotel room and it's this bizarre process where they're flown out and put in 'lockdown.' [You] can't talk to anybody, it's like prison... or solitary confinement or something -- you get your own hotel room and you get an hour in the gym and an hour for lunch but you can't talk [to anybody else]," Probst told Ripa as he explained Survivor's semifinalist interview process. "It's an amazing experience, it's so fun."
About The Author: Steven Rogers
