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tribune
Monday, April 30, 2007

Survivor: Foster's Pond Island? Andover High students producing their own reality TV show

By Crystal Bozek, Staff Writer
Eagle-Tribune

ANDOVER - It is one of the weirdest requests Conservation Director Bob Douglas has ever come by - allow a group of high school seniors to take over Foster's Pond Island and stage their own reality television show.

"It's definitely the strangest 'serious' request," Douglas said. "We talked about opening our land to camping, but we were thinking more on the line of mom-and-dad-type trips."

The Conservation Commission plans to give the go-ahead anyway, so 12 students will compete in "Survivor: Foster's Pond Island" this week, using physical skill and manipulation to avoid being voted off the island.

The show will mimic CBS' popular "Survivor," one of the first profitable reality shows, which brings contestants to places like Fiji, Thailand and Africa to fight for $1 million in the wilderness.

"We're trying to simulate 'Survivor' as much as possible. I can't discuss the challenges ... they won't be easy," said senior John Hamilton, one of the show's producers. "And the camera will always be rolling."

Foster's Pond Island, also called Rock Island, sits off Rattlesnake Hill Road.

The idea for a show began in teacher Joe Spanos' advanced television class last semester. It started as a gag, but quickly snowballed into a large-scale production, with students spending dozens of hours working out the logistics.

"I didn't think it could be done, and they really just voted me right off the island," Spanos said.

Players won't stay on the typical remote island - Foster's Pond Island is a quick row to shore - and they do not have to build shelters or spear animals for food. And unlike the original, rain will cancel Andover's "Survivor." But the producers say contestants will wish they had stayed home by the end of the three-day game that starts Thursday afternoon.

Why?

Players can only bring what fits into their backpack. Cell phones, iPods and comfort foods are not allowed. The teenagers might not want to eat too much anyway, given that the bathrooms are two holes in the ground.

"This is 'Survivor.' It's something they'll have to deal with," said student producer Mark Branzetti. "It's become such a big deal."

Contestants will separate into two tribal councils at the game's start, and after every challenge, the losing council votes off a member. On the third day, the tribes merge. Two to three players will remain at the game's close that evening.

In between challenges, students have to do confessionals, where they disclose their strategy and secret feelings about other contestants to a camera.

The voted-off seniors will come back on the island as observers, or in "Survivor" lingo, "the jury." Jury members pick the winner in June, after airing a one-hour version of the show to seniors the night before graduation. Organizers aren't sure what the prize will be, but they're shooting for something big.

"We've been looking for sponsors around town," Branzetti said.

"Survivor" fans will get a chance to see how Andover's version cuts it when the seniors air the show on cable access television over the summer. A lot of the show's success falls on math teacher Alan Hibino, the show's host and adult chaperone for the project.

"I thought this was a great idea. They're doing something special here," Hibino said. "I'll have to use this for my own 'Survivor' audition tape."

Hamilton and Branzetti, huge fans of the show, hope their student production crew does it justice.

"It's my favorite show of all time," Hamilton said. "I've had to stop watching altogether lately, because if I miss one, I freak out."

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