Millions tune in as 'Survivor' is selected

It figures that after 13 weeks of back-stabbing, conniving, lying and ruthless one-upmanship, the deciding moment on "Survivor" would come down to a matter of honor. An estimated 40 million Americans - minus about 200 households in Shawnee that experienced an ill-timed cable outage - watched Wednesday night as 72-year-old ex-Navy SEAL Rudy Boesch kept his promise and cast the deciding vote for the scheming mastermind of "Survivor," Richard Hatch, awarding Hatch the $1 million prize. Thus the adventure game show that has captivated viewers this summer - and won a big island treasure for CBS - ended on a characteristically unexpected note. All summer long, millions of Americans made Wednesday nights "Survivor" night, turning what was supposed to be an offbeat contest into a television event. Since its debut on May 31, "Survivor" had engaged millions of viewers in a simple guessing game: Who would win the prize? To those who watched faithfully, it may have come as no surprise that the two finalists wound up being Hatch, the 39-year-old corporate consultant widely acknowledged as the king of "Survivor's" palace politics, and Kelly Wiglesworth, a 23-year-old river guide whose physical acumen made up for her lack of strategic savvy. Hatch, along with truck driver Susan Hawk and Boesch, the country's sentimental favorite, persisted to the final round of four largely on the strength of an alliance Hatch formed midway through the 39-day contest. Along the way, the alliance singled out contestants who were thought to be younger and stronger. One by one they were voted off. But someone forgot about Wiglesworth until it was too late. Ultimately, it was she who undid the alliance. Wiglesworth may not have been the fleetest of foot or mind, but it was enough to beat her much older competitors in the game's last four "immunity challenges." The winner of each of these mental or athletic contests could not be voted out at the weekly "tribal council," the blackball session where one contestant was eliminated by secret ballot. Wiglesworth battled the elements and did all she could to stay alive, but like the women of the doomed Donner expedition, she refused to eat her own. After initially joining the alliance, she wiggled out. Yet the purity of Hatch's game plan won him legions of fans, and not just out in TV land. A jury made up largely of his former victims voted 4-3 to award him the million bucks. As young neurologist Sean Kenniff said when casting his vote for Hatch, "Richard is an out-and-out scoundrel. But I like him." But it may have been Boesch, the 45-year military veteran, who had the most unusual reason for voting for Hatch. "We had an alliance to the end," Boesch told the camera. "And I've fulfilled my obligation." Perhaps the ultimate survivors were the executive producers of "Survivor," Mark Burnett and Charlie Parsons. A few years ago they couldn't get American TV interested in their game show. So they shopped it to Swedish television, where it was known as "Expedition Robinson" and became a huge hit. By the time it arrived on our shores, Burnett and Parsons had three years under their belt. They knew what worked and what didn't. CBS was the lucky bidder for "Survivor," though at the time no one knew how lucky. Mostly CBS was trying to come up with something, anything, in response to the runaway success of last year's summer game-show hit, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" on ABC. One of the main reasons people got hooked on "Survivor" was you literally had no idea what was coming next. Some early episodes were guilty of heavy foreshadowing. Anyone who couldn't figure out that B.B. Andersen, the 64-year-old retired contractor from Mission Hills, would be knocked out of the second episode probably loses at "Wheel of Fortune," too. But as the series progressed, the producers found their rhythm. Burnett's team squeezed 44 minutes of taut, tense action out of the 150 hours of video they shot for each episode. Toward the end, the games became more inventive and entertaining - and even a tad poignant at the end, with reminders of the four finalists' "fallen comrades" laid around them. In Kansas City, "Survivor" fans made a night of the finale, packing several venues to see the series conclude. At Tanner's in Kansas City, North, a large crowd came to swill beer, cheer their favorites and - without exception - jeer Richard. Most of the crowd divided their loyalties between crusty Rudy and free-spirited Kelly. "I like (Rudy's) point-blank attitude," said Chuck Coen of Kansas City as he stood at the bar. "He says what's on his mind." On the other hand, Kelly could probably use the money more than Rudy, said Coen's friend Bill Tousley. Not a viewer in Tanner's, however, admitted to rooting for Hatch, the often-nude, frequently conniving castaway. Some of their printable descriptions of Hatch included bossy, cocky (three times), back-stabbing (twice), two-faced, evil, sneaky and floppy (this from someone who took issue with all that nakedness). No matter who won, Mark Raby of Kansas City said he was just happy the saga was coming to an end. "I'm sick of it," Raby said. "It's dragged on, and the media's blown it out of proportion." Raby's friend Todd Nicholson of Kansas City had a simple explanation for why the show had become such a huge hit. "It's the extreme lack of anything else better on TV," Nicholson said. - The Star's Matt Stearns contributed to this article. - To reach Aaron Barnhart, visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com @ART CAPTION:Reacting Wednesday to the expulsion of Rudy from the "Survivor" island were Mark and Serena Shoemaker of Overland Park. They watched at Tanner's Bar & Grill in Kansas City, North. @ART CREDIT:JIM BARCUS/The Kansas City Star @ART CAPTION:Richard Hatch @ART:Photos (2, color and b/w) >>>