After the massive success of last season’s Survivor South Africa: Philippines – it drew a large viewership and was nominated for SAFTA awards for best local version of an international format and Best Presenter – speculation has been rife about where the next edition Island of Secrets will play out.
The fans who guessed Fiji, following some hints from M-Net, were wrong – but not too far off the mark!
Survivor South Africa Season 7: Island of Secrets is indeed set in the South Pacific, but on the island of Samoa. Dashing Survivor South Africa host Nico Panagio made the announcement today on a video-reel shot on location, which was shared on social media.
Says Lani Lombard, M-Net's Head of Publicity: “Nico has mentioned that filming has started, but for now all further details remain top secret. What we can tell viewers, is that they must be prepared for twists and turns unlike anything they’ve seen on the show before. It’s called Island of Secrets, after all. This group of Survivors consist of strong personalities from diverse backgrounds and age groups. Of course they know the ins and outs of the show. This makes every series more competitive than the ones that came before. They will have to play even harder and more strategically than castaways from previous seasons if they wish to go all the way. ”
Survivor SA Season 7 starts on M-Net 101 on 16 May 2019, following The Bachelor South Africa, which took the country by storm last week.
With the recent SAFTA nominations, M-Net proved once again that it stands out from the crowd when it comes to local versions of big international formats. The channel made a clean sweep in this category with My Kitchen Rules South Africa Season 2, Dancing With The Stars and Survivor SA: Philippines receiving nominations.
The MultiChoice Group, which M-Net 101 forms part of, also received a record number of nominations, outperforming all other content platforms in South Africa for the second year in a row. Nomination highlights include 1Magic’s telenovela The River with 17 nominations and Mzansi Magic’s Isibaya with nine. Programmes on Afrikaans channel kykNET received a whopping 60 nominations.