On May 31st, 2000, a new reality show called Survivor premiered on CBS. I member watching as I had read a small blurb on the website slashdot about the show and though it sounded really cool
Slashdot – Survivor to premiere
Which is harder to believe – that Survivor has now been on for 20 years, or that I have never missed a single episode.
Survivor – Wikipedia
I starting watching on my old 27 inch tube TV in standard definition. If I had things to do when Survivor was on (, I would need to manually record the show onto VHS Tapes (Yes – Survivor started before DVRs were a thing). For the first 10 years, Survivor was on Thursdays, and I remember being upset when it would be pre-empted for 2 weeks for the NCCA Basketball Tournament. Eventually we got a DVR and I was able to set up automatically recording to make sue I never missed an episode (Although originally I needed to set things up each year as the title would change and early DVRs were not as smart as the ones today).
Also I remember when Survivor finally went to High Definition for Season 17 in 2008.
While it did take me a few more years before getting a HDTV my self, seeing Survivor in widescreen format (with black bars along the top and bottom of the screen) madeit that much more fun to watch
Survivor switches to HD for Season 17
Having been a fan since the beginning, the show has continued to fascinate me on lots of levels. I really love the way the players have changed strategies over the years to try and keep up with the producers as they continue to tweak the game.
Over the years, there have been players that stand out for one reason or another. While there are far to many of my personal favorites to name, there are a few that I remember for specific reasons. Like Sue Hawk for here tribal council speech, to Johnny Fairplay lying about his Grandmother. From being a jerk like Russell Hantz, to just being an interesting person like Rupert Boneham or Benjamin (Coach) Wade
Which brings me to what got me started on this post in the 1st place. Saw a post from Dalton Ross who has been covering Survivor from the beginning about Sonja Christopher, the 1st person ever voted off of Survivor.
Sonja Christopher – 1st person voted off Survivor
Glad to see that she is still alive and well and fondly remembers here time on Survivor and embraces her place in Survivor and Reality TV History
One of main reasons I remember her is that as a non-sports card collector, I have always wished a company would put out a set of Survivor Cards. While there was a set of cards put out by Upper Deck for Season 2, it was more of a Collector Card Game then a true card set.
So a few years ago, I decided to try and create a set of my own for Season 1. There are still photos of the contestants on some webs sites, so I designed and created a custom set for myself. And the 1st card I created was not of Season 1 winner Richard Hatch, but of Sonja Christopher, the 1st person ever voted off Survivor. Bellow is a gallery of the cards I created. Let me know if I did a good job
That’s it for now. Going to try and write more soon
Andy
AverageAndy 