You guys might not be far off. I've heard rumblings from someone involved with Tourism Australia that US are exploring filming here again, with AU production to piggyback the location as they have done with Fiji. Lots of red tape because of Covid, but apparently everyone is keen to find a way to make it work.
That was something I wondered when the prospect of Holey Moley filming the Aussie version on the US course was originally announced. Obviously that's been canned now but if you win the prize in the US is it taxed in the US?
Obviously now the course has been built in Australia that's not an issue but did wonder if they might have to do the final round locally so no prize was won in the US.
The whole prize/tax thing is really complicated. You essentially become an employee of the network, so for Survivor US to have international contestants means that there are visa's involved, and taxation obligations have to be met. I believe the Viacom-CBS merger was what allowed Canadian's to be cast because they could sponsor visa's and pay the prize through a joint-venture production agreement through one of it's Canadian subsidiaries. Theoretically, the same could be done for Australia via Ten, although that doesn't make sense given we have an active local franchise.
Holey Moley is a little different because it's an Australian production using the US set purely as a filming location. Prize is paid by the local network.
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