Aug 26, 2006 1:07 am US/Pacific
Segregated Survivor-Will Fans Tune In Or Turn Off?
by Manuel Ramos
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) ―
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Survivor: Cook Islands - Meet The Survivors
CBS
Survivor, the popular CBS reality show is hoping that segregation will sell.
But people from New York City to the Bay Area are calling the racial theme of this season's show a "bad idea, and pandering to prejudice."
The show begins airing on September 14th and this time it's outwit, outplay, outlast, the other races.
The promotional clips for the reality show plays up the race of the contestants. "I'm proud to be Hispanic," says one of the players. An African American woman says, "it (her race) is a huge part of who I am."
Four teams, one Asian, one black, one Hispanic and the last, white will compete on Survivor: Cook Island.
A member of the Asian team says, "In the Filipino community they'll be real proud of me."
CBS calls it controversial, but creative.
The host, Jeff Probst, doubts people at home will be rooting for their favorite race, "You're going to root the same way you always do."
But the protests have already started.
In New York City members of the city council are calling on CBS to cancel the show. Councilman John Liu declared, "The idea is stupid and it (Survivor) should be yanked immediately."
Some people think race is too serious to be in a game show.
"To me it sounds like a really bad idea, " says Tram Nguyen, the editor of Color Lines a national magazine on race relations, based in Oakland. Ngyuen added, "It's pandering to this idea of a race war. As if it's a good thing, that it's entertainment."
The head of the Oakland chapter of the NAACP, George Holland, has no doubt the show is pandering to prejudice.
"If it's an African American and it's an athletic event, someone's going to suggest that they're supposed to prevail. If it's math and science some will say that the Asians should win. The whites could beat either one because they are superior to other races in some people's mind," Says Holland.
If Survivor is after higher ratings the racial theme may backfire.
Louanne Livermore of Oakland says she will pass on this Survivor, "Cause I wouldn't want to support that, I don't believe we should segregate as a way to test one another."
Ramon Ramirez probably won't watch either. "I think anytime you divide up people by race, you're promoting segregation. If anything it would turn me off from watching."
Last year teams on Survivor were divided up by sex and age. It wasn't popular. The show lost a quarter of its audience.
This season, CBS could lose sponsors.
New York City Council members are calling for a boycott of advertisers if CBS goes ahead with this version of Survivor.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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