Survivor: Season 07  (2003)

Theatrical Release Information:
Survivor: Season 07

As originally conceived, the seventh season of the popular CBS "reality" game show Survivor was to have been an "all-star" exravaganza, with the winners of the previous seasons' competitions, together with the most popular players, reuniting for another round of challenges and elimations. However, Survivor: All Stars was temporarily shelved to make way for a brand-new competition, set in the Pearl Islands, a chain of 100 islands off the coast of Panama that were once infamous for their confluence of pirates and buccaneers (season seven was initially titled "Survivor: Panama," but this title had already been used by the British version of the series). In keeping with the "pirate" motif, the 16 contestants were divided into the "Drake" and "Morgan" tribes. Also, the competition involved acts of larceny, with significants objects being stolen from one tribe by the other and vice versa. And, of course, there was a mad scramble for a buried treasure with selected players holding sections of the treasure map in their hot little hands. This aspect of the game was one of several "firsts" occurring throughout Survivor: Pearl Islands. Other examples include the first player to voluntarily quit the game without being voted off the island (Osten Taylor), and the first time in which six people previously eliminated were offered the opportunity to return to the game. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide