'Who Wants to Be a Castaway?'

By Stephen M. Silverman

10/15/1998 at 12:00 AM EDT

Taking a cue from a successful Swedish TV series, CBS began shooting its new reality game show, "Survivor," on Monday -- by stranding 16 contestants (eight men, eight women) on a tiny tropical island in the South China Sea. One of them will win $1 million. The castaways, who include a traveling salesman, a neurosurgeon and an ex-Navy SEAL, were selected from nearly 6,000 applicants who endured physical and psychological tests. Their survival on the island, where they must feed and fend for themselves, will be filmed by camera crews for 13 episodes that CBS will broadcast this summer. Every three days during the castaways' stay, one of them will be voted off the island by the others. When it's down to the final two, the already castaway castaways will select the winner. In Sweden, reports the Associated Press, one who was voted out of the competition went home and committed suicide.