With the eighth season of Australian Survivor wrapping on Monday, new data has shown the program still has plenty left in the tank when it comes to sparking conversation online.
Data from ExpressVPN found Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains topped the rankings for share of voice mentions since the beginning of 2022 across forums, blogs, and social media platforms, clocking 108, 075, almost 20,000 ahead of the second-placed Married At First Sight (MAFS), which had 89,435.
Also well represented are The Block (55,110), The Bachelor (47,597), and newcomer The Traitors (34,959).
A Google Trends analysis also found that Survivor was one of the top three most searched reality shows in Australia, alongside Masterchef Australia and MAFS. In contrast, others such as The Traitors, Ninja Warrior, and Love Island dominated specific regions.
This was the first time in three years that the program was filmed internationally after production company Endemol Shine Australia moved the series from Fiji to Cloncurry for the sixth season due to COVID concerns.
Australian Survivor: Heroes V Villains is one of several returning formats for Network 10 this year, which is also introducing MasterChef Australia and The Dog House Australia spinoffs, Dessertmasters, and Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly.
Likewise, Seven and Nine are diversifying their reality slates this year through titles such as Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars, The Summit, Million Dollar Island, and a rebooted Australian Idol.
In the streaming landscape, Foxtel’s Binge will make its first foray into reality with FBoy Island Australia, which is the most anticipated reality program of 2023, ahead of the current MAFS season and the upcoming I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!
However, Binge has a way to go to becoming Australia’s most popular streaming service for the genre, with research from ExpressVPN showing 65 per cent of Australians have gone ot Netflix for their reality TV fix across the past two years, followed by Disney+ (35 per cent), Amazon Prime Video (30 per cent), and Stan (22 per cent), with the Foxtel service sixth on the list with 13 per cent.