9. Survivor (2000-present)
Survivor is the show that kicked off the modern reality show era as we know it today. This is its premise: select 16 candidates, divide them up into tribes, record them living in the wild, interview each person separately, do team challenges and vote one member off at the end of every episode, until one remains as the eponymous survivor and winner of a million dollar-prize. Only Americans could come up with something like this, right? I hate to say this, but you're wrong again€”Survivor is actually based on a Swedish reality show called Expedition Robinson (1997-present). It not only kicked off the American Survivor, but it started an international TV franchise, with some countries using "Robinson" in their titles. Expedition Robinson and Survivor might have the same premise on paper, but their aesthetics couldn't be anymore different. Expedition Robinson has had five hosts over the course of its 15 years, while Survivor has the one and only Jeff Probst as its host. I only saw the first Expedition Robinson episode, but its featured host, Harald Treutiger, presented himself as a low-key, matter-of-fact man, in contrast to Probst's overexcited summer camp counselor persona. Despite the wild setting, Survivor has slicker editing and cleaner visuals than Expedition Robinson, which has a rougher, unpolished look, though you have to take in consideration the age of the footage. There's actually minimal background music for the Swedish show, apart from the theme music, but Survivor constantly blares its background music into your ears, as if you need to be reminded of the theme all the time (it gets annoying after awhile). When the Swedish contestants are assigned to their tribes, they get to wear different-color shirts representing their tribes. In contrast, the American contestants only get different-colored versatile bandanas to accompany their clothes on their back (which gives the viewers get shirtless guys and scantily-dressed women over time). There's also a stronger emphasis on soap-opera-like drama between the contestants, especially as their time for the Tribal Counsel comes closer.
Finally, Expedition Robinson and Survivor deal with voting off their members differently. The Swedish version sets its elimination voting round in the daytime and the show has its contestants come up to a plain wooden sea porch. Survivor sets its Tribal Council as a nighttime ceremony with tribal themes, music, and torches for each member. The Swedish and American contestants write down their elimination choices in a jar, but the latter has at least two contestants state why they chose so-and-so to go (again, to milk drama out of it). Both hosts pluck the names out and tallies them up for the unlucky person who has to leave. When a Swedish contestant is eliminated, no over-dramatic music plays, but he or she gets a relatively kind farewell as they depart the island. In contrast, heart-pounding music sets up suspense as Probst reads each name out until one name gets all the votes, and Probst snuffs out that humiliated contestant's torch as a signal for them. It's the same pattern for every episode (and basically every season), but audiences keep coming back for the different mix of real-life people.