The "Survivor" phenomenon is easily the most bankable notion in the history of television. But what - apart from a good supply of sunblock - does it take to be on so-called reality TV?
Its detractors label it voyeuristic, machiavellian and contrived. But what's become known as reality TV is hugely popular and hugely profitable, mainly because there are no expensive stars to pay.
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So what are the demands of a being on a show such as this? Is it a matter of looking photogenic while plotting against each other? And what about its more athletic equivalent, the Eco-challenge? It falls into the category of expedition racing and requires more athletic prowess than taking part in a "tribal council", but shares many common factors, including a creator, the well heeled, Emmy Award-winning Mark Burnett.
Champion triathlete Sonja Terblanche-Otto, who's taken part in a number of expedition races, says: "Compared to other athletes, you don't need to be super-fit, but you have to work as a unit with the rest of your team. You must maintain your own mental toughness but constantly monitor the team dynamic."
Get over it
"Many teams fall apart. My husband and I fell out with the two other guys we were racing with. It was very difficult at the time, but we still race together. You just have to get over it.
"There's no room for phobias of any sort. If you give in to a fear of snakes, insects or heights you're lost. No-one is equally good at mountain biking, white-water rafting, horse-riding, mountain-climbing and hiking, so you just have to keep going."
Asked whether constantly being filmed affects the morale of individuals and teams, Ms Terblanche-Otto says: "You're conscious of it for a while, but very soon you don't care whether you look tired, sweaty and dirty.
"Anyway, the producers of the show decide beforehand who they'll focus on, and unless you're a member of say, Team Playboy, they leave you alone."
Imagine things going wrong
Dr Clinton Gahwiler, a psychologist at the Sports Science Institute in Cape Town, says: "Typically, mental preparation for such an event counts for between 50 percent and 90 percent of the chances of success, but many athletes only spend about one percent of their time preparing mentally. Training for a sports event is in itself good mental preparation because it'll boost your confidence.
"Motivational speakers suggest that it's enough to visualise yourself winning an event. But it's important that you visualise things going wrong too, and visualise yourself overcoming them.
Reality in events of this sort is that things will go wrong and some of those will be things that are completely beyond your control, says Dr Gahwiler.
"The perfect mental preparation enables you to maintain a stable internal environment, regardless of what's happening externally. If you can make your external environment irrelevant – whether you're on a training run or in the Olympics, with crowds and cameras everywhere – you've done proper mental preparation," says Dr Gahwiler.
Blistered feet
But if you're one of those who can't stand the notion peering over the shoulder of someone as they examine their blistered feet, you might consider trading your TV set in for a library card. That's because reality TV is here to stay.
It's been labelled as the next big trend on TV, after courtroom drama, the funniest home videos, candid camera, cop shows, doctor shows and sitcoms.
The shows' success doesn't surprise California-based cultural commentator Neal Gabler, who traces reality-mania to what he calls "a deep crisis in narrative" – most viewers are bored and disillusioned with the conventional storylines hatched for television.
Ordinary people
"Reality programming not only provides suspense that conventional narratives have a difficult time matching; it seems to vanquish the threat of manipulation (by writers) altogether," he wrote in a March New York Times column.
He points to Who Wants To Be A Millionaire as fitting more or less into this genre: an artificial environment into which ‘ordinary people' are thrust and then monitored.
"Millionaire wasn't a reality show in the Survivor sense, but it had many of the elements of the reality show - real people, contrived situation (answer quiz questions to win $US 1 million) and low costs.
Not a single show of this genre has been failed in terms of viewership or figures, Gabler says.
The "Survivor" phenomenon is easily the most bankable notion in the history of television. But what - apart from a good supply of sunblock - does it take to be on so-called reality TV?
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