What Happened to the Survivor Opening Credits?

Throughout Survivor history, there have been many, many memorable moments. Sue Hawk's famous speech, the Three Amigos Tribal Council, Erik willingly giving up his Individual Immunity, and the famous Idol tribal council from Survivor: Cambodia. One thing that used to be always prominent on the show, was the opening credit sequence at the beginning of the show to introduce us to who everyone was and who was left in the game. In modern day, Survivor this just isn't present anymore. Why? There could be a few explanations for this.

The show might just want as much air time as it possibly can get for strategy. We hardly ever get any camp life segments anymore because it is all game related and strategy. While there certainly isn't anything wrong with this, there are a few valuable seconds for the editors to pack in more information to help the viewers really understand what is going on. We have seen this strategy used in Big Brother. When there is a particularly exciting week with a lot of drama and fights, they usually do away with the opening credits. When there isn't a lot to be used for the show, we get the opening credits. Big Brother however is happening in real time and so they can afford to be more flexible. When it comes to Survivor, they have months to edit the show together. That only makes me think that they want to milk every minute they can.

Another reason could be is that Survivor has slowly shifted more towards a niche audience of super fans instead of the vast majority audience. Not saying that casual fans are not a big part of the viewing audience, its just that there are more hardcore fans now. With that being the case, they already assume that the fans are familiar with the contestants and don't need to be reminded of who is left and how far ahead in the game they are. when the show actually airs. To back up this claim, all you have to do is go to the Survivor YouTube page. On the page, they have the opening credit sequence for the current season. They are clearly still making them, but just not putting it on the show. They are counting on the die hards to go to that YouTube page and check it out.

Personally as a super fan, I am okay with the arrangement that they have going on. I don't need to see those opening credits every episode even though they are very cool. I can enjoy watching them once online and that is enough for me. It is a cool nostalgic thing that Survivor does that I think a lot of super fans appreciate. Plus it saves just a little bit of time because they have to do it once instead of having to update it every week. This give them more time to actually spend on editing the story of the episode and season.

What are your thoughts on the Survivor opening credits? Do you wish they would make a come back?