TV Series World

Survivor's next edition will reportedly be going where no American network television series has gone before: China.

According to Daily Variety, next fall's fifteenth Survivor edition will take place in mainland China -- a move that will make the long-running CBS reality series the first American network television series to film entirely in the communist country.

Chinese government restrictions and logistical issues have historically made it difficult for American entertainment companies to film in the country, however with a booming economy and the 2008 Beijing Olympics on the horizon, China has reportedly begun to adopt a more open policy.

Recently some American movies, including The Painted Veil, a 2006 Warner Brothers film that starred Edward Norton and Naomi Watts as a 1920's English couple living in China, have broken new ground by filming entirely in the country. However according to Reuters, The Painted Veil's production was not without controversy, as Chinese government overseers who had final say over the film's content objected to several scenes, resulting in "tense negotiations" between the Chinese officials and the movie's cast and crew.

Although China's 18,000 kilometer coastline includes thousands of islands, according to Variety, Survivor's fifteenth edition will film in a non-island setting -- a move that would make it the first Survivor edition in nine seasons (since 2003's Survivor: The Amazon installment) to not film in a tropical island location.

Despite its inland location, Survivor: The Amazon -- ultimately won by Jenna Morasca -- still featured a water-dominated environment. The season filmed in Floresta da Vida, a private reserve near the Brazilian city of Manaus, and featured tribal camp, challenge and Tribal Council locations set near the banks of the Rio Negro, a large tributary of South America's massive Amazon River.