'Survivor': Take Two

By Stephen M. Silverman

03/27/1998 at 12:00 AM EST

"Survivor" executive producer Mark Burnett has admitted to The New York Times that some scenes in the wildly successful CBS reality series are re-enacted. Burnett made the revelation about the re-enactments (which involved segments between contestants), but claimed that they did not affect the results of those contests or of the ultimate result of the series. "Survivor" apparently has used stand-ins to represent contestants in those re-enactments. In "Survivor: The Australian Outback," which wrapped up before more than 30 million viewers last Thursday, helicopter aerial shots of a river swimming race between the players were staged. Burnett explained that scenes of the actual race would have shown the ground camera crews filming the competition, thus ruining the effect. "I absolutely couldn't care less," the Times quotes Burnett commenting on the re-enactments. "I'm making great television."

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