This episode of The Town is presented by 20th century studios Avatar Fire and Ash.

Don't miss the movie Critics Are Raving is epic and exciting and gorgeous and heartbreaking,

and stands as one of the greatest films ever made.

It's got incredible visuals, jaw-dropping action, and a cinematic achievement.

Avatar, Fire, and Ash, now playing in theaters, and now nominated for the Academy Awards for

Best Visual Effects and Best Costume Design. It is Wednesday, February 11th. I'm old enough to

remember where I was on August 23rd in the year 2000.

The season finale of a new show called Survivor was watched live by 52 million people in the U.S.

alone.

Pretty amazing number these days.

Survivor was a summer experiment for CBS.

All the other networks had passed on the show.

But a young producer named Mark Burnett got sponsors to essentially pay for it.

Celeste Munez, the head of CBS finally said yes.

Became an absolute sensation, of course, and essentially created a genre of television,

the reality competition show.

With the weekly eliminations, the real people dropped into extraordinary situations,

the mind games, physical challenges,

the I'm not here to make friends and other tropes that we see all over TV these days.

Many of them go back to Survivor.

But even then, I think very few people would have guessed

that the show would still be a hit for CBS heading into its 50th season,

...