Web Sites Keep the ‘Survivor’ Spirit Alive

By now, everyone knows that Richard Hatch was the $1-million winner of “Survivor.” And though the summer’s hit reality show concluded its 13-week run on CBS Wednesday night, the addiction still has not abated for many fans. Until “Survivor: The Australian Outback” hits the airwaves in January, people who miss the weekly watching parties with friends, or placing bets on the next castaway to be voted off the island, can continue getting their fix of the show online.

At fan site Survivor Junkie (https://www.geocities.com/survivorjunkie/), addicts of the show can peruse profiles of each contestant, read “Survivor”-inspired fiction, scroll through a loser gallery, take a compatibility quiz and revel in 12 shrines dedicated to various cast members (four alone for the popular Colleen), among other features.

The site, which has garnered more than 30,000 hits since June, received half of its traffic last week as anticipation for the final episode grew, according to Web master Mike Halterman, 14, of Pensacola, Fla. The Net-savvy teen also co-founded the most popular of the 31 “Survivor” fan clubs on Yahoo! Clubs. Called CBS’s Survivor and located at https://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/cbsssurvivor, it boasts more than 1,400 members and nearly 500,000 visits since it launched in February.

“I know it sounds corny, but we’ve formed a community,” Halterman said. “It’s like the end of an era, and everyone’s wondering what’s going to happen [when the show is over]. Will interest taper off? Will we just talk about the good ol’ days?”

Survivor Junkie’s shrine section, listed under the Vidcap Archive header on the front page of the site, is an especially fun response to the show, featuring collages, advertising spoofs and other art spliced with taped clips and photos from the TV show. Visitors from Los Angeles to Pakistan have supplied contributions, including an Andy Warhol-like homage to Colleen and a “Blair Witch Project”-style pastiche with Susan as its centerpiece. More parodies, including Colleen (again) as Mona Lisa, are available on the Yahoo! Club, as well as message boards, chat and photos.

Halterman said he plans to keep the Survivor Junkie site and club going, with updates on “Survivor II” and fresh content. In the meantime, the Yahoo! Club will be hosting a chat at 5 p.m. today for fans to engage in group therapy over Richard’s shocking win, talk about their withdrawal symptoms and get psyched for the January show.

At SurvivorSucks.com, the best-known “Survivor” fan site, users will still be able to watch “The Rich Dance,” read amusing haikus based on the contestants, uncover the “Gretchen versus Gervase” controversy with humorous graphics and text, get news and rumors about “Survivor II,” post messages and chat. The site, located at https://www.survivorsucks.com, is credited with spoilers and the Gervase mix-up in which users erroneously predicted on the message board that Gervase would be the eventual winner, much to the dismay of those who bought into the hype and were placing odds on the show.

“Picking the winner was never the real point of the site. We’d rather be funny than right,” said Paul Sims, the 30-year-old Web master, who also runs RealWorldBlows.com and BigBrotherBlows.com from his PlanetSucks Network of sites in Dallas. Sims added that the only two times the site picked the wrong castoff castaway in advance were when the official CBS site posted what he said were misleading photos, video footage and coding data meant to dupe fans. (A CBS spokesman would neither confirm nor deny that the network deliberately posted misleading information.)

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SurvivorSucks will host chats before and after each rerun, scheduled to begin airing on CBS on Sept. 15 against NBC coverage of the Olympics. Castaways, including Jenna, have participated in past chats on the site, according to Sims.

“I think there are people who are sad to see it end. It’s been fun,” Sims said. “I think a lot of people are fascinated with the show, but aren’t proud of the fact they’ve been sucked in.”

Intense viewer devotion is exactly what the official CBS “Survivor” site (https://www.cbs.com/network/tvshows/mini/survivor/) is counting on. Featuring robust show-related content and a cleanly designed layout, the site plans to keep the tiki torches burning, in a virtual sense, with its enormous archive of video from the show, exclusive interviews, merchandise, newsletter and background on the contestants, as well as games and news related to “Survivor: The Australian Outback.”

“Fans don’t have to survive without ‘Survivor,’ ” said Dana McClintock, vice president of communications for CBS. “The Web formula has worked nicely to fill in between the tent poles. Similarly, the site will continue to be a source of additional content.”

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Michele Botwin can be reached at [email protected].