Following the basic premise of other international versions of the franchise, it features a group of contestants who are marooned in an isolated location, where they must provide food, water, fire, and shelter for themselves.
The players are split between two "tribes", are taken to a remote isolated location and are forced to live off the land with meager supplies for an extended period of time.
Frequent physical and mental challenges are used to pit the teams against each other for rewards, such as food or luxuries, or for "immunity", forcing the other tribe to attend "Tribal Council", where they must vote off one of their players.
In the first season, the members of the tribe that lost the immunity challenge competed in the Double-Power challenge, which either granted the winner an extra vote at that night's Tribal Council or individual immunity; after the merge, all contestants competed in the Double-Power challenge, and the winner received either the power to block two contestants from voting at that night's Tribal Council or the ability to cast a second vote at Tribal Council.
There have been three different types of duel challenges used, two of which involve voted out contestants competing for a chance to return to the game.
These duels took place immediately following the immunity challenge, and in seasons 2, 4 and 5, involved the duelists being banished to Exile Island for 24 hours, away from their tribemates.