Divide 18 strangers into three "tribes"; drop them on remote islands with little food and no shelter, and have them outwit and outplay one another until the last competitor standing is crowned the winner of a $1 million prize. When the adventure reality game show "Survivor" debuted on CBS in May 2000, nothing like it had been seen on American television before.
As the year 2000 ushered in the new millennium, boy bands and pop stars dominated the music charts, and the International Space Station welcomed its first crew, while back on Earth, reality TV was forever changed by an inaugural group of castaways on the CBS show "Survivor" — all when more than 70% of Americans didn't own a cellphone and only half of U.S. households had a computer.