Production
The show was produced by 3Ball Productions. Its co-creator, former actor and children's game show presenter, J. D. Roth, is the executive producer and on-screen host. Roth received a Daytime Emmy nomination in 2006 as "Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series" for Endurance: Tehachapi but did not win.
Contestants ages 12–15 were chosen each spring from five-minute audition tapes sent in by more than 12,000 teens to the show's production team. Twenty players were selected to participate in each of the first five seasons of Endurance; this was reduced to sixteen in Season 6. In a 2004 newspaper interview, Roth revealed that he looked for as diverse a group as possible. Shooting of the series took place each summer over a three week period and began with the selected teenaged contestants arriving at a secret remote location in late July. Each season was taped in a different location, including California, Hawaii, Mexico, and Fiji.
In a January, 2007, interview with the Boston Globe, Connor Finnegan recalled his experience as an Endurance: High Sierras player the previous summer: "At first it was weird being filmed all the time. You'd be talking and suddenly there would be a camera or microphone shoved into your face. The big rule with reality TV is never to look at the camera."
As part of the show, host J. D. Roth and the players sometimes discuss the interpersonal drama occurring among the teams. Roth has said that many participants have become close friends while the series was being shot, learning tolerance for people who were different from themselves. However, the Boston Globe reported that there was friction among the players on Endurance: High Sierras following the controversial break-up of teams. Finnegan's mother said, "There was definitely some nastiness", complaining that the producers and writers, "deliberately put the kids in situations that are designed to increase the drama and tension". But, Taylor Sico-McNulty, another Endurance: High Sierras contestant from Massachusetts and Finnegan's partner, said that when she returned home following the show's California taping, she "really missed seeing all the other kids in the cast every day", adding that a number of player reunions have since been held.
Another player from the fifth season, Dakota Fisher of Eliot, Maine, echoed the feeling, saying that his appearance on Endurance left him with relationships he will never forget. "You should have seen me a week after the show, it was depressing", said the 15-year old who had been trying for two years to get on the Emmy-nominated teen reality program.
Roth said in a 2007 news release, "Being on Endurance is a life-altering experience for every kid who is selected. With only the sun, moon, stars and each other, these kids have no choice but to get to really know each other. They learn to dig deep within themselves when someone says they can’t do something. They learn to overcome first impressions and prejudice and they build tremendous self-confidence by tapping into skills they never even knew they had."
Endurance is the successor to Moolah Beach, a show created by Roth which was not renewed after its single 2001 season, when a change in ownership of Fox Family Network (now ABC Family), opened up a new offer from Discovery Kids for a reality series. For four seasons (2002–2006), Endurance was also broadcast on the NBC network as part of its Saturday morning Discovery Kids on NBC block of programs.
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