Survivor is an American reality television show, based on the Swedish program Expedition Robinson.
When this did not happen, the producers turned to recruiting and in the end, only one contestant had actually submitted an application to be on the show.
[1] For the most part, contestants are virtually unknown prior to their Survivor appearance, but occasionally some well-known people are cast.
Two contestants, Russell Hantz and Sandra Diaz-Twine, have competed on international editions of the series (in both cases Australian Survivor).
On two occasions, contestants have been cast but ultimately withdrew before the game began without being replaced: a 20th contestant, model agency owner Mellisa McNulty, was originally cast in Survivor: Fiji, but dropped out and returned home the night before the show began because of panic attacks,[8] while in Survivor: San Juan del Sur, the 19th and 20th contestants, sisters So and Doo Kim, were removed just before filming due to a medical emergency.