Celebrity Survivor on Solid Ground

IT endured one flop this week, but the Seven Network appears to be on safer ground with the debut of its new show Celebrity Survivor.
Hosted by Ian "Dicko" Dickson, Celebrity Survivor is a local, carbon copy of Nine's long-running US hit, Survivor. It follows a string of overseas forms of the Survivor and Celebrity Survivor format.

While appearing to lack some of the key ingredients of the original format - such as unpleasant, whining Americans - Seven's Celebrity Survivor managed to pull in 1.31 million viewers last night in the slot recently vacated by Lost.

Attempting to survive on a tropical Vanuatu island are 12 celebrity castaways, including model Gabrielle Richens and NSW politician David Oldfield.

Seven will be satisfied with Celebrity Survivor's debut after dumping its million-dollar quiz show, The Master, after just one show.

The Master, hosted by Sunrise sports presenter Mark Beretta, premiered on Wednesday night but attracted a dismal 740,000 viewers nationally.

"The Master hasn't been axed," insisted a Seven spokeswoman.

"It will be back later this month in a new time slot. There is no point keeping it on air (in that time slot) if it hasn't worked."

Seven also has ordered an overhaul of its new Sunday night quiz show, You May be Right, amid accusations it's a rip-off off ABC TV's successful Spicks and Specks.

Around 1.09 million viewers tuned in to You May be Right, hosted by Dancing With The Stars judge Todd McKenney.

Among other debuts this week was the Ten Network's heavily promoted, animated talk show David Tench, which last night came up against Celebrity Survivor but managed only 1.14 million viewers.

Next week, Seven will be hoping the observational documentary series, The Force, will scoop the Tuesday night ratings, as it screens on the back of top-rating weekly program Border Security.

Border Security regularly hits the two million viewer mark.

Hosted by Sunrise newsreader and former It Takes Two contestant Simon Reeve, The Force showcases the challenges faced by the men and women of the West Australian police force.

"We hope to attract some of Border's (Security) audience, because we are on directly after them," Reeve said.