Cue the excerpt from Emily Nussbaum’s Cue the Sun! The Invention of Reality TV.
Photo: CBS/Courtesy Everett Collection
When the first season of Survivor began filming in the spring of 2000, nobody knew this was going to be the show that changed television forever. Well, Mark Burnett probably knew — the executive producer who sold the Survivor concept to CBS was never short on self-confidence. But the producers and contestants in the air above Borneo on that first day of filming had no idea what this series would become. The contestants didn’t even understand what kind of TV they’d be making — some envisioned a wilderness documentary, others had prepared for an endurance adventure, a few thought they’d be making a…
