The American reality show "Survivor", which premiered on May 31, 2000, has a very large audience. It was inspired by the Swedish reality show "Robinson Crusoe" which premiered in 1997. It was later absorbed by the American Columbia Broadcasting Corporation (CBS) and produced into the American version of "Survivor", which has been broadcast for 48 seasons. The success of the American version of "Survivor" has also led to the emergence of versions in different countries such as the British version and the Australian version. Now it has been implemented in dozens of countries and regions around the world.
The winner of the 48th season of "Survivor" will still receive $1 million in prize money.
The rules of the American version of "Survivor" are similar to similar works in other places. A group of contestants are exiled to a wild place and their physical and mental endurance are tested in various ways. Finally, the winner, the "sole survivor", is decided by collective voting and awarded a prize of 1 million US dollars.
CBS's flagship reality competition show "The Amazing Race" also has a prize pool of $1 million.
At that time, CBS set the prize at one million dollars because it also referred to the highest prize of the quiz show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" launched by its competitor ABC in 1999. After that, CBS launched the ace reality show competition show "The Amazing Race", which also set the highest prize of one million dollars. It can be said that this has been the maximum prize size of American reality shows in the past two decades. With this prize, more than 40 "sole survivors" (the 48th will be born at the end of May this year) have changed their life trajectories.
However, according to U.S. media, due to the continuous soaring inflation in the United States over the past 25 years, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, compared with the actual purchasing power, the million-dollar bonus in 2025 is actually only equal to 534,850 U.S. dollars in 2000, which is nearly half the amount.
As "Survivor" is about to celebrate its 25th anniversary, a staff member of the program talked about this sensitive topic in private with the media. "No matter what, $1 million is still a lot of money, which is more than the prize money offered by other reality shows," the staff member said, "especially for those who are lucky enough to participate in our show, this is really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Moreover, money is not the only incentive. They can gain more life experience from the process of participating in the competition. In fact, many people sign up for this reason."
New Jersey police officer Tony Volació won $3 million in two entries.
In 2020, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of "Survivor", the show producers specially invited back the past 20 "sole survivors" to hold a special season to decide who is the "king of kings". The championship prize was doubled to 2 million US dollars. In the end, Tony Vlachos, a New Jersey police officer born in 1973, won the award. However, this increased incentive was not continued afterwards. The prize money for the latest season of "Survivor" is still 1 million US dollars.
The prize money for "American Idol" has shrunk to $125,000.
Of course, compared to the 25 years of stagnant prize money of "Survivor", more reality shows now simply choose to reduce the prize money. For example, the prize money of the famous talent show "American Idol" was also $1 million when it premiered in 2002, but it has been reduced all the way to only $125,000 now, and another $125,000 will be collected after the first album is produced. Of course, in the past two decades, there are countless examples of people who became stars by winning "American Idol", and the fame and income won by the winners afterwards are probably far more than a million dollars.
In contrast, the winners of "Survivor" have no singing or acting career to expand, and the $1 million prize is almost their only reward. Even Tony Volació, who won the championship twice and received a total of $3 million in prize money, continues to work as a police officer.
On the one hand, money is worthless, and on the other hand, there is comparison from competitors. In the past few years, streaming media has flourished, and they have also launched a number of reality shows. Compared with traditional media such as CBS, which has been declining due to a decrease in audiences and advertisers, the difference in prize money for reality show champions of streaming media is not small.
Amazon's reality show "Beast Games" has a top prize of an astonishing $10 million.
For example, the top prize of the reality show "Squidward Games: The Challenge" launched by Netflix in 2023 was as high as 4.56 million US dollars, which became the largest cash prize in the history of global television. However, they did not keep this record for long. Last year, Amazon's reality show "Beast Games" raised the top prize price to 5 million US dollars right from the start. Moreover, in the finale aired in February this year, the top prize was doubled to a staggering 10 million US dollars.
What's more, the co-creator and host of the show, the well-known YouTube blogger "Mr. Beast", simply challenged traditional TV reality shows. "Please allow me to make a small diss to those regular reality shows. The grand prize is only $1 million?" He said in a behind-the-scenes video of the show. "Don't be ridiculous, look at our "Beast Game"! One minute and 42 seconds into the show, I have already given away a $1 million prize!"
