An early challenge on "Survivor: The Australian Outback" consisted of the castaways having to balance a wooden pole with jugs of water hanging from it on their shoulders. The tribe-member who held on the longest won a reward for their tribe. However, one of the poles unexpectedly broke under the weight of all the water and the challenge had to be run a second time with slightly different rules. Since this incident, every challenge featured on the show is tested by a team of people (known as the "Dream Team") prior to filming in order to discover loopholes and ways to cheat.
The winner of Survivor is not the only person who walks away with money, every castaway gets a certain amount of money dependent on how long they stayed in the game. For example the 2nd place winner receives $100,000.
While in Australia, Colby Donaldson removed corals from the Great Barrier Reef, a crime resulting in a fine of AU$110,000. Technically, he should have been disqualified from the show due to breaking the local law. The helicopter involved with the reward also flew around sea bird rookeries. When this episode aired in Australia, the commercial breaks featured advertisements that stated removing coral from the Great Barrier Reef is illegal and results in a fine.
Melissa McNulty, a 28-year-old talent manager from West Hollywood, was set to be a contestant on Survivor's fourteenth season, "Survivor: Fiji," but due to massive panic attacks she withdrew from the game the night before filming was to begin. As there was no time to find a replacement, "Survivor: Fiji" became the first, and only season of Survivor to start with an odd number of contestants.
Mark Burnett wanted the Tribal Council to feel like it was a ritual that had been going on for thousands of years. However, some small features of the Tribal Council ceremony disappeared after the first season. The gong that the Survivors would ring upon entering or exiting the Tribal Council area was canned because it was, in the words of host 'Jeff Probst (I)', "corny." The first Tribal Council set also featured a treasure chest full of fake dollar bills. In one of the early episodes of season 1, the Survivors passed around a conch shell and took turns talking. The person holding the shell would be the one speaking, and when he or she was done, he or she would pass the shell to the next person. Probst disapproved of this method of moderating Tribal Council because he felt that he didn't have anything to do other than sit and listen, and the conch shell was never seen again after this episode.