There are a couple of things, in my opinion, Sweden is famous for; Volvo, Ikea and birth-mother to reality shows.
A group of people are stranded on a desert island with not much to eat and only one personal thing each. They are divided in two teams, North and South. The teams build their own camp, find their own food and compete. The competitions are either for food, other awards or for deciding which team will have to participate in the "island-council" (öråd). In the "island-council" the losing team will have to vote for one of there member to leave the expedition. Half in the season the remaining members from each team are merged and the individual competitions begin. When only four people remains the final competition called "the board" (plankan) will decide who will be the winner. It's a endurance competition where the participants balance on boards, the last one to hit the water will win.
I've been a fan of this show from when it first aired in 1997. It was the first of its kind (reality shows) which made it interesting to watch. Back in 1997 it was risky business for the Swedish television (SVT) to take a chance on Charlie Parsons idea. It wasn't tested before and the fact that it would cost a lot to produce made it even more risky. But SVT took the risk and with it the consequence. At first the show made big headlines of the wrong kind. It was among other things called crap television, humiliating and so on. A show where people voted each other out, explaining their vote, was hard for many people to take in those days. But the show overcame most of the criticism and was a huge success. Over the years they have managed to keep it interesting with exciting new competitions, twists and the stunning photo. When the show became such a success a lot of countries all over the world made their own versions. But Sweden has always been the one to come up with the new exciting ideas which set a standard in the genre and are copied by the other countries. To name one version: the American "Survivor". In these days when reality shows take up, as it seems, more than half of the airtime, it's good to know that at least one show is worth to watch.
