The Belgian PokerStars Pro Mattihias De Meulder posted a very intresting blog yesterday about his time on the TV show Expedition: Robinson - the European version of the American program Survivor. De Meulder, his brother Christophe and fellow PokerStars Team Pro Fatima de Melo were all on the show, which was filmed over the summer on a deserted island in Malaysia, and they ended up in the same team. Their common background as poker players came in handy when they had to make tough decisions...
"When it came to strategy, our background as poker players served us very well. On the American Survivor, people approach the game strategically, but in this version, people are less strategic and would rather see a true "survivor" win. I think it is as much of a social and strategic game as much as it is a physical game, but a lot of people over here [referring to TV viewers in Belgium] don't see it that way. Over the course of the program we had to make some really harsh decisions and ended up voting someone out who had become a friend of ours."
"Evil Poker Trio"
"We were known as the "Evil Poker Trio" and it caused a lot of drama, especially from the die-hard fans that dislike the strategic/conspiracy element of the show and want to see true survivors win. But this is a game, and like in poker, we were very aware of our own strengths and weaknesses. We realised that we weren't the best camp builders, the best climbers, or the best swimmers, so we used our mental strength instead. We compared it to a winner-take-all tournament, where you had to get to the end by any means necessary and give yourself the best odds to get there. While the other players were concerned about keeping the fire and doing chores around the camp, we were constantly thinking about strategy."
The show is still airing in Belgium and the Netherlands with 8 episodes in the books. So if you like survival programs/shows, and understand the language ; make sure to check it out!
About Robinson: (information from wikipedia)
Expedition Robinson is a Swedish reality television program in which contestants are put into survival situations, and a voting process eliminates one person each episode until a winner is determined. The format was developed in 1994 by Charlie Parsons for a United Kingdom TV production company called Planet 24, but the Swedish debut in 1997 was the first production to actually make it to television.The show is one of the biggest and most controversial successes in Scandinavia, and variants have been produced in countries around the world (notably by Mark Burnett, who licensed the format to create the U.S. series Survivorin 2000).
