I’ve been something of a fan of Survivor since the first series. I’d rather watch Eco-Challenge (the more entertaining, more admirable predecessor to Survivor) I haven’t followed every series closely, but have watced most of them. I caught the final episode of the current series and, true to early rumors, Sandra Diaz won.
I’ll spare you the lengthy analysis, but I did want to pass on this unpopularized tidbit: everybody in the final 16 wins money. The first ejectee gets $2,500 and the runner-up (in this case Boy Scout Lil) walks with $100,000. That’s $2564 a day. It ain’t a cool million, but it’s ain’t bad.
UPDATE: Todd’s got some insights into this series, and I made a comment about winning by being under the radar.
DarrenBarefoot.com 
And often they renegotiate as had occurred during the American Big Brother 2 when the cast/players spent two days out of line of sight of cameras in protest to the lack of ratings (as told to them by planes flying past with banners).
All of the Internet watchers clued in, but the whole thing wasn’t mentioned on the show at all.
I dunno, I burned out on these shows a long time ago.