The One Terrifying Location Survivor Will Likely Never Be Filmed At Again
Over its 46 seasons, the CBS hit reality series "Survivor" has been filmed in remote locations all over the world. While today the show usually takes place in Fiji, the earlier seasons of "Survivor" were filmed in various places from the Australian Outback and the Amazon to the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia (which so happened to be the location Jeff Probst disliked filming in the most). However, Season 3 of "Survivor" may just take the cake for the most terrifying location ever because it was filmed in the wilderness of Kenya where contestants needed to be protected by armed guards.
In fact, according to Season 3 "Survivor: Africa" contestant Teresa Cooper in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, although the guards were never shown on TV, they were required to protect the cast and crew from dangerous wild animals. Unfortunately, even the armed guards weren't enough as Cooper also explained that the contestants had to build a thicket barrier around their camp and assign two people to stay awake tending to the fire at night to stave off the hungry wildlife. However, the wildlife wasn't the only reason that Season 3 was so brutal.
Other difficulties faced by the cast of Survivor: Africa
On top of the ever-present threat of dangerous wild animals in Kenya's Shaba National Reserve, the Season 3 cast also had to put up with other difficulties — the main one being the lack of food and water. While nowadays, contestants on "Survivor" are supplied with clean drinking water and some food rations, that wasn't the case in earlier seasons.
In Season 3, because filming took place within a wildlife park, the animals inside were protected, and, per CBS News, the cast was not allowed to hunt. This made finding food quite difficult. Furthermore, although there was a river full of fresh water near the camp, contestants were banned from going anywhere near it on account that it was infested with crocodiles. So, instead, the cast was forced to drink from a muddy puddle that was contaminated with elephant feces.
As one fan of the show on Reddit put it, "Africa was way too extreme." After all, one of the main draws of "Survivor" is watching the strategy of the contestants and seeing relationships form and break over the season. But it's hard to get that psychological aspect of the show to shine when the cast is dehydrated, starving, and scared.