Survivor’s success hinged on promises of low production cost.

Evidence

Reality TV’s explosion in the US began with Survivor in 2000. Executive producer Mark Burnett, inspired by the 1997 Swedish program Expedition: Robinson, pitched the idea of a wilderness survival competition to every major network. The project was initially dismissed as too lowbrow, but CBS gave Burnett the green light after he promised to produce it cheaply. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 230