What actually goes on in those precious morning hours before a season begins?
What happens off-screen before the cameras all turn on?
How much work exactly goes into putting together just a few minutes of television?
Lots and lots of coffee.
2:45 a.m. Ponderosa 1 (Bekana Island)Rise and shine!
But it’s really been torture.
(Richard Hatch famously smuggled matches ontoAll-Starsin a vial up his bum.)
There is also one other meeting that needs to take place before they are cleared for play.
Jeff Probst has publicly stated that he hopes they never leave.
Among those souls is prop master Lucas Faganely.
He started back in season 21 (Survivor: Nicaragua) as a Dream Teamer testing out challenges.
But for now, just let the dude eat his breakfast.
3:30 a.m. Ponderosa 1The doctor will see you now.
Dr. Joe Rowles has been the medical director onSurvivorsince season 31.
And this season, everyone looks good to go.
or, ‘I’m a bit worried about this,'" explains Dr. Joe.
Is it improving?’
But no such issues this season.
Interestingly, this is not when the final weigh-in occurs.
“So they probably put on a couple of extra pounds.”
And there is a lot to keep track of.
Soon, the radio is not enough.
“Her story’s amazing,” says host Jeff Probst of Munday.
“Started as a Dream Teamer.
Now she runs the show.
But imagine a picnic of 645 people spread out over multiple islands.
It’s a lot of folks to manage.
4:45 a.m.: Base Camp/Ponderosa 1There’s been a delay.
That’s because the assistant director has a trick up her sleeve.
“We actually had a little trick here,” confesses Munday later.
“I told them 7, we rolled at 7:30.
That’s when I figured we would be doing it anyway.
After 15 years, I finally learned a lesson.”
But it gets even more confusing than that.
But it means Dr. Joe has a few more destinations on his itinerary to get through the entire cast.
And then he’s back on a boat one of many more he will be on this morning.
At least that was the plan.
And the replacement they found may look familiar to eagle-eyed viewers.
While looking for a replacement boat, the marine department discovered that theRa Maramahappened to be close by.
There are also crates.
All the crates and food must be put into position for maximum dramatic effect.
But there a was nice surprise waiting for Faganely when he arrived.
“They have a crew lamp,” says Faganely.
“That was really nice.
That doesn’t happen all the time.
Sometimes we’re dressing for a morning set and there’s no light and we just have head lamps.
Today, we were lucky.”
Ah, but will the luck continue?
At least that’s how it was supposed to run.
It’s just another reason why Munday builds in extra time on the schedule.
Scheduled to arrive for portraits at 6am, they instead will arrive a full hour later.
“At 6:00, I have my first crews heading out to shoot those portraits.
I was in catering for that.”
6:00 a.m. Base Camp: Dave Dryden’s roomAll roads ultimately lead to David Dryden.
It’s a huge day for Dryden.
Not only is it marooning day, it’s also his son Levi’s 5th birthday.
But with his wife and birthday boy still asleep, Dryden has one thing on the mind: weather.
“We have predictions and models of what’s gonna happen,” says Dryden.
The wind is whipping.'
And the more advanced knowledge the better.”
“It was windy, but it wasn’t raining, so that was good,” he notes.
“The weather affects everything,” says Dryden.
These things are all gonna get affected by weather.
It’s kind of a domino effect."
“Even if it’s early in the morning, I feel better being here,” says Munday.
“I’ve got my two radios, I’ve got the computer.
I’ve got everything I need laid out in front of me.”
However, Munday has a back-up plan similar to Dryden’s.
“Maui and Hennie in marine, they’re men of the sea.
They’re pretty good with that.”
“There isn’t anything coming in that we have to worry about,” says Munday.
“There are not going to be any cyclones or anything heading our way.
We would have known about it beforehand.”
Some people organize their thoughts onto a whiteboard.
Others enter it onto a computer.
And others write it all out longhand.
Probst does all three.
And the reactions that I’m hoping we’ll get."
And then setup the four returning players.
And then bust through the four returning players resume.
And then tease them with something that they don’t know what’s coming, which is Extinction Island.
So that’s how I look at it from a story point of view.
It’s just big beats.
But really, that part of my job is the easiest.
Hosting a marooning is easy.
I already know what we want them to do."
Half an hour later, the drone is airborne, and filming of the new contestants begins at 7:30.
7:30 a.m. Base Camp: Challenge officeTheSurvivorchallenge office at base camp is the coolest place on earth.
To mark the occasion, Kirhoffer cranks out a quick email congratulating the rest of this exclusive fraternity.
Subject line: “For the 38th time, happy day one.”
“We’re actually looking really good,” responds Munday.
“There’s no need to delay anything this morning.”
“He’s not used to that.
He seemed kind of shocked.”
8:15 a.m. Jeff Probst’s houseSomething is wrong.
Not with the protein shake Jeff Probst just slammed down.
That was positively delicious.
(No wonder Probst looks so jacked.)
But something is not right about Kelley Wentworth specifically, some statistics that the team had researched.
“I think she won two immunity challenges, says Probst.
“How could we not know this?”
The host texts challenge producer Marchand, who is already out on the boat working on a buoy prop.
One or two immunity challenges?
And how did we not know this?.”
Milhouse texts back: “One.”
It’s the second one on the day Joe collapsed [inSurvivor: Cambodia]," says Probst.
It was a male and a female winner.
That’s what we forgot.
She won the first part of it."
At this point, all Probst can do is laugh.
“We create these challenges.
We keep our own records.
And even this morning, I found myself going, ‘Pretty sure it’s two.’
“He’s the one who actually plants the idols!”
“We don’t plant them until day of,” says Van Wagenen.
That means Quigley has work to do, and beyond just hiding the idols.
That something is a clue to an advantage hidden back at the beach.
The only question that remains for Quigley is: Which beach?
“We talked in the past few days about where it was gonna be hidden.
A race against time!
“Often it’s treating nausea and stuff,” says Dr. Joe.
It is quite common.
And sometimes the swells are not so gentle.
In general, maroonings at sea tend to be less dangerous than big opening land challenges.
“We do worry about people swimming, but they’re all tested to check that they can swim.
We have safety divers.
But, fingers crossed, we’ve never had that happen, and I feel we won’t.”
9:10 a.m. Riley Munday’s officeSegment producer Talia Sawyer hits Munday on the radio with some good news.
They’re done with all the newbie portraits and 50 minutes early according to Munday’s admittedly padded schedule.
Can you blame her?
It affects marine, it affects the rest of the day if we have other things scheduled.”
But today, so far, so good.
But then it hit him.
“I need to say it’s hard to winSurvivorbecauseSurvivor’s unpredictable.
For Probst, that crystalized both the theme of the season and the returning foursome.
“It’s connecting the dots ofSurvivorbeing very hard, as evidenced by these four players.
And it’s hard because it’s unpredictable.
Now we’re starting to foreshadow Extinction Island.
That’s basically aSurvivorwhiteboard meeting.
So,slightlymore picturesque.
Around 25 people with a variety of responsibilities.
“We have basically all departments there,” says Dryden, who will be running the show.
“We’ve got anybody who’s gonna participate.
And basically I go through what’s gonna happen.”
And there has been one big change for today they need to go over.
“We actually reoriented the ship,” explains Munday.
“We re-clocked it about 90 degrees.”
But that meant all the backgrounds would change as well.
Not only that, but the tribes might end up on the wrong beach!
That’s because now the contestants would be paddling out closer to land.
Let’s ensure that we get clean tribe shots that aren’t overlapping.”
And that’s just for the opening set-up.
You’re gonna be responsible for getting whoever grabs the secret advantage.
I need a wide here, I need a tight there.”
And then there are the cameras underwater as well.
Someone’s gonna come to you and untie that thing and that’s your shot.
Everyone has a job and a specific responsibility.
That is where the contestants will board and the latestSurvivoradventure will officially begin.
“Dude, 38!
It’s a beautiful day.
And we’re gonna go do it.
Alright, later!”
The host then stops recording and hits send.
Even worse,nobodycan.
For one of the few times all day, Munday is frustrated.
“I was told that they’d be done by 10.
I get here at 10:15 and it’s still not in position.”
And, as Munday explains, the delay has caused a domino effect.
“Art hasn’t been able to get aboard to set their last-minute items.
Audio hasn’t been able to get aboard because audio have to sync cameras and audio first.
That’s why she’s so good at it.
The scramble to set up cameras, food, and clues begins!
10:36 a.m.The chaos is officially underway.
30 people are now on-boardRa Marama.
The more they can grab, the better fed they will be.
Meanwhile, cameras are placedeverywhere.
10:49 a.m.Wanna know a secret?
There often is a secret reward or advantage hidden on board at a marooning.
Not this season, however.
This season there aretwosecrets a secret tribe rewardanda secret individual advantage.
The tribe reward message is hidden in the middle of the boat behind a bag of fruit.
Whoever removes the fruit will find it… as long as they are actually looking.
“Secret Tribe Reward!”
“Dive under buoy, find the handle and pull!”
“This way they can rebury it, because they can’t move the actual thing.”
“There will be a bag of pineapples on top of it,” explains Faganely.
How much time does Faganely spend figuring out the perfect place to stash an advantage?
“Quite a bit,” he laughs.
It has been the cause of much recent consternation.
The problem began when production had to change the marooning boat a few days prior.
And when they did it, something was off.
But that’s not what happened.
And the thing is under a buoy.
And then below that is the mechanism they have to trigger so that release it.”
During the rehearsal, the Dream Teamers never saw the trigger.
Then finally somebody else comes over and theystillcan’t figure it out.”
The director can only laugh.
And then they released it.
We were all like, ‘Oh my God!’
It needed to be totally revamped and simplified."
So with only about 14 hours until go-time, Dryden walked over to the challenge office (a.k.a.
Best Place on Earth) and tasked Kirhoffer with making the contraption “idiot-proof.”
We gotta double-check that it’s bulletproof.
It’s definitely gotta work.
We can’t have them coming up saying, ‘I can’t figure it out.
The problem and corresponding solution was all in the handle.
Pull the handle, let it drop to the floor of the ocean.
We have scuba divers they can go down and find it later."
It all sounded good in theory, but how would it look once they got it in the water?
The challenge producer dives into the ocean to inspect it for himself.
Now you see it, now you don’t!
Like, say, director Dave Dryden proclaiming “Let’s lose that.
Dryden is getting his first look at the almost-finished product and making other adjustments when necessary.
“The wind is strong so that just makes maneuvering boats and positioning tricky,” he notes.
We’re right on schedule.”
Then, amongst all the chaos, Dryden takes a moment to look around his outdoor office-at-sea.
“Look at this day!
It’s been raining all week!
I’m loving it.”
Meanwhile, Milhouse is still tweaking the hiding of the secret tribe reward clue.
“The funny thing is, the potatoes have so many nutrients that’s what theyshouldtake.”
(Future contestants take note!)
He then does the same for the yellow buffs.
The level of detail goes even further.
Speaking of getting things off on time, where is Jeff Probst?
Repeat: The eagle has landed!
“And it’s dead perfect.”
Probst and Kirhoffer have been doing this together for over 18 years now.
They have a shorthand and level of trust that has been forged over an astounding 1,446 days of filming.
If the king of challenges says it’s good to go, then the host believes him.
But just because everything looks in place doesn’t mean Kirhoffer still isn’t at least alittlenervous.
“We have plenty of people concerned with everything else.”
“Usually I have these nervous butterflies at the marooning,” says Van Wagenen.
“But there is a calmness about this season for some reason.”
“This is like Christmas morning,” explains the EP.
“It’s shaking the presents and getting ready to see how this turns out.”
The calmness of this season may be somewhat due to familiarity.
Because it just works.
Nor is it who finds the individual advantage.
But there is actually athirdsecret item on board, and this one is a bit of a misdirect.
We’re going to keep an eye on that and see who grabs that thinking that they got something.
“Last call.”
Even with all the preparation in the world, last minute tweaks and changes like this are the norm.
He works the boat a bit, asking one cameraman how many seasons he’s been on the show.
“I started season 11,” comes the answer.
sighs Probst, now talking more to himself.
“Wow, we have a massive combined total of seasons with our crew.
That’s really amazing.
From there the host starts running through what he will say to the contestants when they arrive.
It’s a routine with which crew members are very familiar.
“He has pushed his body so far that it literally gave out and he dropped.
He lasted 32 days,” Probst whispers under his breath.
He’s got it.
He’s in the zone.
The host is ready.
Seven safety divers have been positioned in the water.
Security has locked down the waterways to ensure clean visuals for filming.
And then, Munday gives the order: “Let’s bring the contestant boats in.”
Slowly, two boats come into view.
Everyone onRa Maramawaits in silence.
It takes seven minutes for both boats to make their way toRa Marama.
“Alright, guys, take a spot,” he orders.
“Everyone find a spot on the boat.
Let’s get this thing going.”
Perched on a port beam railing right behind the row of cameras, Van Wagenen flashes a grin.
“Alright,” announces Probst at exactly 11:50 a.m. “Welcome to the 38th season ofSurvivor.
Give it up!”
The game is on.
For tons of other pre-game articles and moreSurvivorscoop all season long, follow Dalton on Twitter@DaltonRoss.
