Tropical Cyclone Zena forces evacuation of Survivor cast
Digital Reporter
Thursday, September 8, 2016, 4:14 PM - It seems Mother Nature was the hardest contestant to beat in season 33 of reality game show Survivor.
For the first time in all 32 seasons, the entire cast from the upcoming Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X had to be temporarily evacuated from Fiji, where production was filming, due to Tropical Cyclone Zena.
The storm hit on April 6, which was day two of the game.
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"For 32 seasons of Survivor, we've been very lucky to have escaped some severe storms," host Jeff Probst revealed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. "This time, the storm caught us. It was only day two in a matter of hours, a nice afternoon turned into a severe rainstorm that kept growing in intensity by the hour."
Cyclone Zena temporarily votes every Survivor contestant off of the island https://t.co/Bd8ewf0RdB pic.twitter.com/mWspDZPWml
— A.V. Newswire (@AV_Newswire) September 8, 2016
The show's crew members were monitoring the forecast by the minute, according to Probst.
"When the national Fijian weather service upgraded it to a cyclone, we had to evacuate both tribes from their beaches and get them to safety," he told Entertainment Weekly.
This isn't the first time Mother Nature has played a role in the show.
Just three weeks after production wrapped on Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains in 2009, a tsunami struck Samoa, which completely decimated parts of the island, including "Ponderosa" where contestants stay after being voted out of the game. The tsunami was triggered by a magnitude 8.0 earthquake on Sept. 29, causing significant damage and loss of life across the country.
"Weather does play a part in the show, and you will see the part it plays, and it's a first," Probst said. "And it was scary."
Probst says the two tribes reacted differently when told they were going to have to leave.
"It was very interesting how the two groups responded to the news. The Gen-X tribe was responsible and very concerned about their well-being," he recalled. "The millennials were less concerned about their safety and more excited that they were making Survivor history."
Season 33 of Survivor premieres Sept. 21 on CBS.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
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