The CBS hit reality show ‘Survivor’ is approaching its milestone 50th season, with a cult following to match. In recent years, Survivor’s impact has begun to reach college campuses countrywide, such as the University of Michigan, Indiana, and Maryland, among others.
Michigan State has become the latest school to join the trend in making their own scaled-down adaptation of the show. Survivor: Michigan State has students participating and producing a semester-long version of the show. The MSU season is filmed and then released on YouTube at a later date.
The stakes are lower, with the MSU sole survivor winning $500. By comparison, the T.V. winner gets a cool $1 million prize. MSU competitors pay $50 upon their casting, to help fund supplies, and the coveted cash prize.
Survivor: Michigan State, or Survivor MSU for short, was created by graduate student Michael Wallis in the Fall 2022 after he was a participant in ‘College Survivor' while he was a student at Maryland.
“Coming to school at Michigan State, I was a big fan of Survivor and during (my) undergrad, they had a Survivor program there where students would play a semester-long game and I participated in that,” Wallis, a third-year law student said. “I saw that Michigan State didn’t have anything like that on campus so I thought to myself, this would be a great way to take up some of my free time, get to meet new people, and put on the experience that I had.”
While contestants are typically marooned on an island, Michigan State’s club improvises to stage the game to an on-campus landscape. Survivor MSU takes place across campus, with tribal councils held, late at night, behind Erickson Hall. Participants scour the MSU campus for hidden immunity idols that can be used to shake up the game at tribal councils.
Each player’s torch, the representation of their ‘Survivor’ life, is lit to start each season. The game objective is simple: outwit, outplay, and outlast the opposition. Players who are voted out at tribal council are eliminated and have their torch snuffed.
The only ways for players to save themselves are to win immunity or possess an idol.
Another crucial aspect of both Survivor and its East Lansing-based spin-off are the weekly immunity challenges. From puzzles to eating challenges or dropping balls off of the roof of the Wharton Center parking structure, the challenges are less physically demanding than those of the CBS show.
Survivor MSU president Ava Ballagh and the executive board take inspiration from her friends at other schools or from challenges on other reality shows to creatively implement ideas.
“I think a lot of what I draw inspiration from is from previous actual ‘Survivor’, actual ‘Big Brother’ challenges and being able to adapt those for college Survivor,” Ballagh, a senior, said. “One of the coolest challenges we did last semester (thought of by former president Micah Ferguson) was we took slingshots and played “golf” with them. So they had to launch a tennis ball to eventually get to a target however many times it took and we called it ‘Survivor Golf’.”
Ballagh was randomly followed on Instagram by Survivor MSU in December 2022. The next day, she applied and was cast for the Survivor MSU’s second season that next spring.
Nearly three years later, Ballagh also serves as the host of Survivor Michigan State, tapping into her inner Survivor host Jeff Probst.
“I always say hosting is the perfect job for me,” Ballagh said. “When I played (Survivor MSU Season 2), in the back of my mind I was like ‘I could host’, I could do that. I feel like I could host the real show, that’s something that is tailor-made for me.”
Ballagh, set to graduate in May 2025 with a double major in theater and broadcast journalism, has a busy schedule outside of her commitments for the club. However, unlike Wallis, her career interests align perfectly with her hosting duties.
“I feel like running Survivor MSU is very much a good view into what I could possibly be doing for the rest of my life because I have yet to decide if I want to end up in New York or L.A., and if I end up in L.A. I’m sure I will be working more on TV,” Ballagh said. “I’ve always been a reality TV person, so I would probably gravitate towards working on reality TV.”
“The tribe has spoken” is one of several quotes synonymous with the banishment of castaways on CBS. Probst’s iconic one-liners have contributed to the high-level of popularity for Survivor. Ballagh, a lifelong Survivor fan, fulfilled a childhood dream by uttering some of the famous Survivor phrases.
However, she only kept some of Probst’s lines in order to help forge her own identity as a host.
“While I keep a lot of the integral lines to the show, a lot of what I do is very much me,” Ballagh said. “I think my personality is a big part of what I do as a host.”
CBS Big Brother host Julie Chen is one of the lone female reality television hosts in 2024, and Ballagh took portions of inspiration from veteran hosts Probst and Chen. Through her role as host, Ballagh says she aimed to further the representation of women on reality television.
“As a host, you don’t see a lot of female college Survivor hosts or female T.V. hosts all that often, especially 10 years ago,” Ballagh said. “I feel like being a woman and creating my own mark on it (hosting) is always something I intended to do.”
In addition to his prior roles as host, founder, and duties on the executive board for the club, Wallis participated in Survivor MSU’s fourth season, Fans vs. Favorites in the spring 2023. Despite his many roles within the club, Wallis said casting is the most challenging.
“The two biggest factors we look for (in casting) are personality and commitment, and it’s really hard to gauge (that) in such a short interview,” Wallis said. “We want people to be taking advantage of this opportunity. It’s not a club where you can show up every week, leave the event, and show up next time. The core of the club is the players interacting and strategizing outside of the events.”
Survivor MSU has cast people from all different personalities, game archetypes, and walks of life with the sole intent of creating the best possible product. The club casts between 18 and 22 people per season starting with 2-4 tribes, with tribal merges that occur throughout the season.
Season 5 contestant Shelby Ginsburg was among the few polarizing personalities that stood out during the casting process. The senior made shockwaves throughout the season while handling a strenuous schedule, double majoring in theater and creative advertising.
Joining Ballagh in her pursuit of Broadway glory, Ginsburg is also no stranger to putting on a show, joking that providing good entertainment “was her goal” upon getting cast for season 5.
“When they asked me why should we cast you in MSU Survivor, I was like, ‘If nothing else I will give you a show. I will make this entertaining’,” Ginsburg said. “I’m not afraid to say what I mean because it’s just a game. We’re all here for a good time and we’re all here to put on a show.”
Ginsburg’s pre-existing relationships within the club played a part in inspiring her to give Survivor MSU a whirl. Liz Bray, a friend of Ginsburg's and the club’s engagement director, was a participant in Survivor MSU Season 3 and Ballagh and Ginsburg are roommates.
In addition to her ties to some Survivor MSU icons, Ginsburg's impending graduation this coming May played a factor in her decision to apply. Ginsburg kept those relationships (notably with Ballagh) a secret for the entirety of the semester.
“I’ve had a couple friends do Survivor (MSU) in the past; Claire Swayze, Liz Bray, and I found out this year Ava (Ballagh), she’s in the department with me,” Ginsburg said. “I heard stories from them and they seemed like they had a lot of fun. It just seemed like it would be a lot of fun, a way to meet new people, and I was like this is something I can kill my time with.”
While many participants entered the Survivor MSU world as avid Survivor fans, Ginsburg was largely unaware of the storied history of the popular reality show. Her own interest only grew as the season progressed.
“I had never watched a single episode of Survivor before I played this game,” Ginsburg admitted. “Now I’ve seen like eight seasons of the show and I love it. I’ve become a very big Survivor fan from playing this game.”
Ginsburg’s gameplay was inspired by her favorite castaway of all time, two-time finalist and Survivor: Micronesia (Fans vs Favorites) winner Parvati Shallow. Nicknamed ‘Black Widow’, Shallow is infamous among the Survivor fandom for her social prowess and cutthroat style of play. Ahead of her Survivor debut, Ginsburg aspired to emulate aspects of Shallow’s legendary gameplay.
“I am not very athletic so I knew going into this game, my strategy was going to be very much social and making friends with people hoping they’ll keep me around,” Ginsburg said. “I took a lot of inspiration from players like her (Parvati) who were strategic and social primarily.”
Five seasons later and with an all-stars themed season six upcoming, the club has reached new heights. Many of their 85 participants from the initial seasons joined the production team after the snuffing of their torch.
Ahead of the commencement of their sixth season, Ballagh expressed pride over the growth of the organization due to their own accomplishments and collaborations with other schools in the college Survivor world.
“That’s something I’m most proud of, is getting Survivor: MSU out there and people know we exist, people are excited to see our seasons,” Ballagh said. “We’ve come a long way since season one, even season two when I first came on the scene, so I feel like there’s a lot to be proud of for a lot of the collaboration and a lot of the growth of Survivor MSU.”