Book Review: Survivor - A Cultural History

Premiering in 2000, Survivor altered the landscape of network television from its first season, popularizing reality shows for audiences in the 21st century and quickly growing to a semi-annual release slate that has resulted in more than 46 seasons and hundreds of contestants. Over twenty years later, the series remains popular and a ratings hit, maintaining a devoted fanbase even as the television landscape has evolved and shifted to streaming.

In Survivor: A Cultural History, Joseph J. Darowski and Kate Darowski analyze how the iconic CBS show revolutionized television and has adapted and changed across decades of production. They explore the creation of the series and its surprising emergence as a ratings juggernaut, the evolution of gameplay for both the producers and the players, the series existence as a self-proclaimed “social experiment”, and much more. While the basic premise of the series has remained the same—survivors are marooned in the wild with few supplies and must vote someone out at a weekly tribal council with the goal of being the sole survivor to win $1 million—there are notable differences from where the game began to where it is now.

This book will be published May 20, 2025. Rowman and Littlefield provided an early galley for review.

This is the third book I have read in the A Cultural History franchise, so I was familiar with their approach to analyzing shows. My enjoyment of Survivor goes back to some of the very first. I left and returned a couple times over the decades, but when I watched I found the show to be highly entertaining as well as enlightening about human behavior.

Having not watched every season and thus not a deep analyzer of the show, I really got into the presentation by the Darowskis. I found their level of coverage to be a solid overview of the show with plenty of details peppered throughout.

Since this is part of the A Cultural History franchise, I appreciate the look at how the show has changed over the past several decades in ways that mirror too how society has changed. As noted, viewing earlier seasons with the most modern outlooks will show some bumps and warts. It is no different than when I view films and TV shows I grew up on and loved from the 70's and 80's with a modern lens; some things simply would get a lot of pushback were they attempted to be made in 2025. That's what makes books like this important to have around. It documents the show's history with a place for discussion and reflection.