considered the "Ultimate Survivor" and be awarded the grand prize. The prize on the 2001–2002 ITV iteration was £1,000,000 and is £100,000 on the 2023 BBC iteration. History Original run The first series, Survivor: Pulau Tiga, premiered on ITV on 21 May 2001. Billboards were allotted around the UK displaying the slogan "You Don't Win, You Survive". The billboards created confusion amongst viewers as it misled them into thinking people would die throughout the game. Executive producer Nigel Lythgoe complained to Heat magazine about the decision. He said: "The tagline when I left for Borneo was 'Trust No One', which is great. When I got back it was, 'You Don't Win, You Survive'. Well, you did win – you won a million pounds! And of course you survive, because we're not going to let you die." Despite Survivor receiving initial media hype, the debut episode opened with 6.6 million viewers, which was seen as a disappointment for ITV. Despite the figures, an ITV spokesperson said: "We couldn't have hoped for anything better. We never expected 10m on the first night although we hope it will build to this. You have got to remember that we introduced 16 strangers and a complicated gameshow to the audience and we are confident it will grow. It's already a massive talking point, making the front pages." Ratings for the series then dropped to an average of 5 million, which was half of the audience that the network had expected. In response, ITV made the decision to transmit less episodes per week to allow the hype for the series to grow. However, their change failed to have an impact on viewing figures. Nevertheless, the finale of the first series garnered 7.7 million viewers, peaking at 9 million. Despite being low in ratings by ITV's expectations, Survivor was the most watched reality television series in the UK at its time of airing, such as Big Brother. After the first series had concluded, Julia Lamaison, ITV's Head of Strategy, admitted that the network were too hopeful with their expectations for the series. They had hoped for a series average of 12 million viewers, accrediting their hopefulness to the success of the series in America. Lamaison also admitted that ITV had not supported Survivor enough in the first series, particularly with the time slot and the scheduling. Despite the low ratings for the first series, ITV aired the