Survivor: Little Rock, California

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by Gangerolf

what about dividing them up by sexual preferences? a straight team, a gay team, a lesbian team, a pedophile team etc. ok maybe not the last one.

You could have a team of catholic priests. Whether that'd be a celibate team or a pedophile team is anyones guess.

[SlowwHand]

Originally posted by Gangerolf
pffft

they call the teams 'tribes', you'd think they could throw a few apaches or navajos in there.

what about dividing them up by sexual preferences? a straight team, a gay team, a lesbian team, a pedophile team etc. ok maybe not the last one.

Comanches. Comanches would kick the other's asses..again.

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by Gangerolf
what, no Indian team?

Exactly

Originally posted by Sn00py
Indian's are more or less considered Asian.

But we're not Asian

[rah]

This does look like a gimmick, but they won't keep them as four teams for long.

I have remarked many times at the lack of diversity on the show, so I guess I'm willing to tollerate this gimmick since it should guarentee that we don't end up watching a bunch of white folks during the last 8 weeks.

(yes there have been rare exceptions, but they have been rare)

[SlowwHand]

Richard Hatch set an example of strangeness that will never be rivaled.

[Donegeal]

Originally posted by Sn00py
Indian's are more or less considered Asian.

The fact that they are ALL American is what makes these and all the other shows stupid. They all have horrible personalities and useless skills.

Now throw in a German team, South African Team, Australian/NZ team, Japanese Team and an American team, then we'll be talking.

Seeing as its an American show, I would imagine it would have American contestants.

I am excited to see the first episode and they start to divide the teams. Will Jeff tell them right off the bat, or let them figure it out for themselves? I am sure that a number of the contestants will look around at the cast and think to themselves "I want that person and that person on my team!" and of course, both those people will be of the same ethnicity. The teams will start forming and people will be with people they want, to only discover once the teams are divided that the tribal lines were ethnic. Interesting. Very interesting.

[Aabraxan]

Just for the record . . .

Thread title notwithstanding, Little Rock didn't have anything to do with this segregation . . . Harumph!

[Japher]

but Clinton did!

[Aabraxan]

Japher,
How so?

[Elok]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't this stupid show been going on for close to a decade now? I seem to recall the early buzz about it emerging in 1997 or so.

And this is reality TV, Sn00py. Everyone, regardless of nationality, is contractually obligated to behave like a total creep. Even if they don't, their actual personalities are so managed by editing as to be unrecognizable.

[Dis]

I didn't realize it was still on. The California in the title gave me an idea though.

The should have a survival in south central LA.

[Japher]

Japher,
How so?

like a need reasons to rant

[Kontiki]

Originally posted by Elok
Correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't this stupid show been going on for close to a decade now? I seem to recall the early buzz about it emerging in 1997 or so.

First season was late spring/early summer 2000.

[Donegeal]

NYC No Fan of "Survivor: Segregation Island"

Oh my! This is going to be an interesting season!

Who would've thought reinstituting segregation would cause such controversy? Oh, right. Everyone but the producers of Survivor.

A group of New York City officials and civil rights groups have blasted CBS' announcement that it has split the contestants on Survivor: Cook Islands into tribes by race, claiming the producers' decision to pit blacks, whites, Asians and Hispanics against each other during the early rounds of the show would only promote divisiveness among competitors and viewers alike.


"This idea is so ill-conceived that it would be funny--but for the fact that racism does still sometimes rear its ugly head," city councilman John Liu said at a press conference Friday. "This show has the potential to set back our nation's race relations by 50 years.


"No where else do we tolerate racial segregation and we certainly won't stand for it in this battle-of-the-races scheme to prop up sagging television ratings."


Liu claimed the show's divisive premise would do nothing but promote the spread of negative stereotypes based on the actions of the different tribes, something that, just two days after the announcement, is already an issue.


Right-wing mouthpiece Rush Limbaugh, always keen to wax bluntly on delicate subjects, took to handicapping the new season on his radio show Wednesday.


Hispanics, he said, "have shown a remarkable ability to cross borders" and "will do things other people won't do." Asians, per Limbaugh, are "the best at espionage, keeping secrets." Blacks "lack buoyancy" and are "more likely to drown," while the white man's burden will weigh down the last team with "guilt over the fact that they run things."


So much for breaking stereotypes.


Liu, an Asian-American, is hoping to head off any more grandiose and ill-informed statements at the pass, launching a campaign for CBS to pull the season, or at least the season's concept, from the air. (The latter is a nonstarter, since the show has already been shot.) He's teaming up with the council's Black, Latino and Asian Caucus to urge the network to rethink the questionable gimmick, beginning with a rally at New York's City Hall earlier today.


"This is not the type of premise that promotes unity," council member Robert Jackson said at the Friday press conference. "This show does not foster an environment that is conducive to diversity."


Caucus cochair Maria del Carmen Arroyo agreed, saying that Survivor's producers didn't realize the impact of their programming decision.


"CBS has demonstrated great lapse in judgment. As a society, we need to hold corporations responsible for their actions," councilwoman Melissa Mark Viverito said.


The caucus has already earned the support of likeminded advocacy groups. The leader of Hispanics Across America told Reuters the new season of Survivor was "not reality TV--it's racist TV."


"Moreover, the participants will be held to the daunting and unfair challenge of representing an entire race of people," HAA founder Fernando Mateo said, adding that the stunt was an "offensive and cheap trick."


"What will it mean for a team--a race--to fail in a battle of wits and strength against another race?"


For its part, CBS defended the decision to segregate the tribes based on ethnicity and denied claims it was an incendiary twist designed to grab headlines and ratings--both of which the show, having dropped to a franchise-low average of 16.8 million viewers last season, is in need of. The powers-that-be instead insist the stunt was the next logical step in a series that made its name on exploring social politics.


"CBS fully recognizes the controversial nature of this format but has full confidence in the producers and their ability to produce the program in a responsible manner," the network said in a statement. "Survivor is a program that is no stranger to controversy and has always answered its critics on the screen."


Last season for instance, the contestants were initially split into four tribes consisting of the oldest men, the oldest women, the youngest men and the youngest women. The groups eventually merged into two mixed teams and eventually one tribe.

On Tuesday, when he first announced this season's segregation on CBS' Early Show, host Jeff Probst said that the contestants had "mixed reactions" about the division.

Probst also claimed that, controversial as the premise was turning out to be, the idea to divide its cast was well intentioned.

"The idea for this actually came from the criticism that Survivor was not ethnically diverse enough, because for whatever reason, we always have a low number of minority applicants apply for the show," Probst said.

Inadvertently or not, the producers of Survivor do appear to have contributed to the cause of racial unity. Thanks to the division, all ethnicities seem to have united--in their opposition to the show.

Survivor: Cook Islands kicks off Sept. 14.

One season of one show that is watched by only 16.8 million people is going to set equal rights back 50 years?



Thats like the whole "gay agenda" thing! What complete morons!!!

Don't they realize that all their screaming and yelling is going to do is get more people to watch? Free publicity!

[LordShiva]

Rush Limbaugh can still astonish!