Some may call it exploiting racial tensions. CBS calls it darn good television.

August 23, 2006 4:33 PM

Survivor: Cook Islands'20 castaways will be grouped by race, with competitors divided into four tribes consisting of whites, blacks, Asians and Hispanics. If your reaction is "oof," you are not alone. But host Jeff Probst says, "I found it to be one of the freshest ideas we’ve had going back to the beginning of this show."
posted by amro (102 comments total)

Freshness of a terrible idea is not a mitigating factor, Jeff Probst. Selling "segregation with zazz" doesn't legitmize it.
posted by boo_radley at 4:37 PM on August 23, 2006

So I guess this ensures that some people of color will actually make it to the jury.
posted by Mayor Curley at 4:38 PM on August 23, 2006

Oh, this is going to be all kinds of wrong. And will probably result in 3-4 lawsuits, some protests, and some extremely defensive comments from CBS when this starts getting real flack. This has to be the worst idea in the history of television.
posted by unreason at 4:41 PM on August 23, 2006

I thought it was bad when The Amazing Race selected their token black team for the Family Edition and they were literally "The Black Family."
posted by Mayor Curley at 4:44 PM on August 23, 2006

Ooooo National Amusements is going to regret this one.
posted by riotgrrl69 at 4:45 PM on August 23, 2006

Ah, but it will generate press. Being incredibly stupid and offensive never stopped anything from happening on these godforsaken reality tv shows.
posted by kosem at 4:45 PM on August 23, 2006

And will probably result in 3-4 lawsuits, some protests, and some extremely defensive comments from CBS when this starts getting real flack.

I suspect that CBS thinks the ratings will be worth the shitstorm.
posted by amro at 4:47 PM on August 23, 2006

So we set out and said, 'Let's turn this criticism into creative for the show.' And I think it fits perfectly with what Survivor does, which is, it is a social experiment. And this is adding another layer to that experiment, which is taking the show to a completely different level."

A social experiment? And what, may I ask, is the hypothesis we are testing in this experiment?
posted by Afroblanco at 4:47 PM on August 23, 2006

Well, there goes my idea for "Jew Island."
posted by Astro Zombie at 4:48 PM on August 23, 2006 [8 favorites has favorites]

Is this really that bad? I mean, race is a such a huge part of identity, and they need something new to separate people by.

I feel like in theory, it's not a bad idea. It's just the possibility of fucked-up-edness is so high.
posted by ORthey at 4:48 PM on August 23, 2006

Ah, but it will generate press.

Exactly, it's a press gimmick since who cares about that show now?

Well, there goes my idea for "Jew Island."

That's on fox.
posted by delmoi at 4:50 PM on August 23, 2006

And what, may I ask, is the hypothesis we are testing in this experiment?
That stupidity, greed, and back-stabbing transcends racial lines?

I truly hate these shows.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:50 PM on August 23, 2006

"This has to be the worst idea in the history of television."

Worse than Survivor itself? I think not.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 4:50 PM on August 23, 2006

Did the contestants know this gimmick when the show started, or was this one of those dramatic reveals where the cast is shown overracting in disbelief and/or shock?

The way these shows like to throw in a the ol' switch-a-roo I wouldn't be surprised if they mix up the teams soon after the "outrage" sets in. All they really need to do is get more people to talk about Survivor and watch it. I know I haven't actually watched it or read anything about the show in several years and yet I read this article. But I still don't think I'm going to watch it. Someone tell me how it ends.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 4:50 PM on August 23, 2006

Reality shows are offensive by their very nature. This is just slightly more explicit, that's all.
Still aimed at the vast moron demographic, like all the rest of them.
posted by signal at 4:51 PM on August 23, 2006

This is a terrible idea! Next, they'll be letting straight guys on Project Runway!
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 4:52 PM on August 23, 2006

Someone tell me how it ends.

Race war.
posted by Astro Zombie at 4:52 PM on August 23, 2006

I believe that's The Amazing Race War.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 4:53 PM on August 23, 2006 [15 favorites has favorites]

Nice.
posted by Astro Zombie at 4:54 PM on August 23, 2006

Probst is right. (but is he real?)

All reality shows are basically public experiments in social psychology. Think about the kind of ratings Milgram would have gotten if he wasn't forty years too soon. When you actually consider them as such, you have to realize how misleading and dangerous they are. Their sample sizes are extremely small, and they reach a terrifically wide audience, many of which probably don't have access to actual scientific journals. Needless to say, the capacity for mass misinterpretation of data is large.

This is all in good fun when you're playing matchmaker to computer nerds. What the makers of Survivor are doing now is using this paradigm to test the effects of race segregation, an extremely volatile political topic, for good reasons. Whatever happens on this show may reinforce negative racial stereotypes for god-knows-how-many casual viewers, regardless of what yokels they throw together on that island. J.T.C.....
posted by Laugh_track at 4:54 PM on August 23, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

In week 2, each group is infiltrated by a fraudster in makeup!
posted by riotgrrl69 at 4:55 PM on August 23, 2006

A social experiment? And what, may I ask, is the hypothesis we are testing in this experiment?

That race-based gimics will sell.
posted by delmoi at 4:56 PM on August 23, 2006

Don't they always merge 'tribes' (which somehow sounds racist now itself) once the body count starts to get low?

I wonder who will merge with who?? And what tribe names will they have??
posted by matty at 4:56 PM on August 23, 2006

Laugh_track writes 'All reality shows are basically public experiments in social psychology.'

No, they're badly scripted, acted and edited morality plays. They don't even consider coming in the vicinity of the idea of what an experiment actually is.
posted by signal at 4:56 PM on August 23, 2006

All reality shows are basically public experiments in social psychology. Think about the kind of ratings Milgram would have gotten if he wasn't forty years too soon. When you actually consider them as such, you have to realize how misleading and dangerous they are

Plus, we're not exactly talking about random sampling here. Contestants are usually picked for their personalities, specifically to make them clash.
posted by delmoi at 4:57 PM on August 23, 2006

people starving...seperated by race...being forced to do pointless tasks for the for the amusment of those watching...offered a "prize" if they survive the ordeal. Is this season sponsored by the new "Prussian Blue" album or that great new resuraunt in India?
posted by Megafly at 4:58 PM on August 23, 2006

No, they're badly scripted, acted and edited morality plays

...public experiments in social psychology with enormous gaping design flaws. To my defense, I did take a college class in social psychology where we watched some reality TV (I forget what). I don't know how well that speaks for my college though.
posted by Laugh_track at 5:00 PM on August 23, 2006

Better idea: Survivor expands the concept to include not just humans but other species. Then Jeff Probst and whoever on his team who developed/supported this idea will be placed on the island with a pride of lions, or a pack of hyenas. Ratings should be pretty good, I think.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:00 PM on August 23, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

"Jeff Probst and whoever on his team who developed/supported this idea will be placed on the island with a pride of lions, or a pack of hyenas"

Now that, I would watch.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 5:03 PM on August 23, 2006

Laugh_track writes '...public experiments in social psychology with enormous gaping design flaws. '

You seem to assume that there's a 'reality' component to these shows, that the contestants actually compete, clash, etc., without scripting or guidance. Nothing I've seen leads me to believe this.
Badly written/executed morality plays, that's all I see.
posted by signal at 5:09 PM on August 23, 2006

This has to be the worst idea in the history of television.

Close, but not quite.
posted by JT at 5:09 PM on August 23, 2006

The future basically sucks.
posted by tula at 5:10 PM on August 23, 2006

You seem to assume that there's a 'reality' component to these shows

Well, it is in the name, "reality TV". Duped! I need to read more independent news.
posted by Laugh_track at 5:15 PM on August 23, 2006

Here is how this will play.

They will be marketing this under the Race card. Controversy and ratings will ensue.

However. I bet after doing a modicum of research on the players you will find:

The white people will be selected from a group of under-educated white trash mouth-breathers or c-level porn starlets.

All the other candidates will be selected from the ranks of Rhodes scholars, elite athletes, and high-productivity professions.

Guess who is gong to win? And we all get to feel good.
posted by tkchrist at 5:16 PM on August 23, 2006

Morton Downey Jr kick-started this horrible era of television. Hour after hour of nothing more than people arguing.
posted by davebush at 5:21 PM on August 23, 2006

as someone who somehow saw every episode of survivor until last season's yawn-fest, i must say that i think this is a brilliant move by CBS to breath some life into their tired franchise.

often these types of shows turn into a men v women competition and noone says shit.

the question isnt what will happen this year, but what will happen when they finally get the nerve to do the muslim, jew, conservative christian, athiest Survivor

now that will get me to pop some damn popcorn
posted by tsarfan at 5:22 PM on August 23, 2006

Just when you think TV execs. couldn't dumb it down any further and make their product any shallower, they always manage to drain a little more out of the pool.
posted by wfc123 at 5:27 PM on August 23, 2006

it's sick and backward-thinking, to be sure, but as far as entertainment goes, it's brilliant.

the idea will play so well in these raw and polarized times, sucking fuel from the obvious us-vs-them conflicts that get huge ratings these days. the white house figured this out a long time ago, and why should tv producers be any less crass, or in-tune with our most basic, racist fears?

i'm just surprised there isn't a muslim tribe.

this'll be the most popular survivor yet.
posted by scrawlyman at 5:29 PM on August 23, 2006

Can we all just skip ahead to the live tv gladiator deaths? I mean, isn't this where reality tv is leading?

Our culture is a historical embarrassment.
posted by parki at 5:29 PM on August 23, 2006

Just when you think TV execs. couldn't dumb it down any further and make their product any shallower, they always manage to drain a little more out of the pool.

Too true. As Zimmerman put it: "When you think that you've lost everything, you find you can always lose a little more".
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:31 PM on August 23, 2006

Astro Zombie writes "Well, there goes my idea for 'Jew Island.'"


Mel Gibson's co-producing it. Not only is it not Survivor, there are no survivors.
posted by orthogonality at 5:33 PM on August 23, 2006

posted by Zozo at 5:35 PM on August 23, 2006

Hey, I've got an idea for a reality show... let's find a country with all kinds of ethnic tensions, topple its government and occupy it, divide its population into teams based on ethnicity, then open up the borders and invite in everyone who wants to join in on the competition or send arms. Now that would make for some damn entertaining television. And the best thing is, it would never get old. We could just keep doing it again and again, year after year, decade after decade, century after century.
posted by XMLicious at 5:36 PM on August 23, 2006 [3 favorites has favorites]

I hope this turns into the Stanford Prison Experiment for race instead of authority.
posted by oraknabo at 5:37 PM on August 23, 2006

So this starts as Survivor and ends as The Amazing Race?
posted by hal9k at 5:41 PM on August 23, 2006

Racial Draft

^ could just as easily have gone in a different post.
posted by little miss manners at 5:45 PM on August 23, 2006

Racial Draft

^ could just as easily have gone in a different post.
posted by little miss manners at 5:45 PM on August 23, 2006

Young Singers spread racist hope
posted by owhydididoit at 5:54 PM on August 23, 2006

Who watches this shit? Seriously. Someone must be watching this crap, if the networks keep pumping out reality show after reality show. Whoever you are, you need to die.
posted by nightchrome at 5:58 PM on August 23, 2006

Sounds like Mark Burnett caught the end of Mind of Mencia while waiting for the Daily Show to come on. (I did, at least.)

As terrible, terrible as it might be, this idea is nothing to be afraid of... Any kind of "damaging" situation (like the white tribe running away with everything) will likely be avoided in construction and casting. In the scheme of the show, I'll even go out there and say it'll be really interesting to see play out. I'll watch.
posted by pokermonk at 5:59 PM on August 23, 2006

guess it's "race" day on Metafilter. I think what I dislike the most about the "reality" shows is that they are engendered to promote intra-tribal conflict, which over a significant amount of time reinforces the same world view in those watching. Television doesn't create reality, but it sure as hell reinforces preconceived ideas.

Wellp I'm off for another G&T, this piece of news made up my mind whether or not to have one.
posted by edgeways at 6:03 PM on August 23, 2006

guess it's "race" day on Metafilter.

I'd say it's more like melodrama day.... But everyday is melodrama day on Metafilter.
posted by pokermonk at 6:04 PM on August 23, 2006

But everyday is melodrama day on Metafilter.

Actually, Wednesday is "Anything Can Happen Day".
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 6:16 PM on August 23, 2006

Considering the reaction from the Mefi crowd, I think it's a great idea.

Keep in mind though, that these tribes will will only last for two episodes tops, then they'll intergrate!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:20 PM on August 23, 2006

Surely there's a way to combine this fine, fine idea with Survivor: Caprica...
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:20 PM on August 23, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

I hope they get great tribe names:

The Amazin' Caucasians
5 Angry Chinamen
The Niggas Please
...erhm, I got nothing for the Hispanics.

My bet is on the crafty Asians ftw.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 6:24 PM on August 23, 2006

Finally, my chance to prove once and for all that Hispanics are better at winning immunity challenges!
posted by spaltavian at 6:32 PM on August 23, 2006

Your favorite reality show sucks.
posted by frogan at 6:35 PM on August 23, 2006

I've always wondered what a season of "The Real World" on MTV would be like if all the housemates were black. Now that's a show I'd watch.
posted by ColdChef at 6:39 PM on August 23, 2006

You're all going to watch it.
posted by chococat at 6:40 PM on August 23, 2006

ColdChef: Done, son.
posted by kosem at 6:43 PM on August 23, 2006

Boy is Pat Buchanan going to be embarassed if the white people lose first!
posted by clevershark at 6:44 PM on August 23, 2006

Can Survivor just be renamed to The Race Race?
posted by nlindstrom at 6:49 PM on August 23, 2006

You'll quite often see 'alliances' and partnerships in these shows form along racial lines anyhow, so it's not as if they're introducing an element that isn't already there.

And it's nice to see a larger ethnic mix... I mean, why should white people have a monopoly on trading their dignity for 15 minutes on the tabloid covers and a chance to win buckets o' cash and fabulous prizes?
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 6:53 PM on August 23, 2006

Sounds like Mark Burnett caught the end of Mind of Mencia while waiting for the Daily Show to come on. (I did, at least.)

Carlos Mencia is the worst thing to happen to race relations in this country in a while.
posted by delmoi at 7:09 PM on August 23, 2006

We can frown on it all we want. I bet you it'll be the highest rated season since the start. I stopped watching Survivor somewhere around Australia, and came back briefly for the "superstars" season. I doubt I'll be tuning in myself for this "racist" season. However, whenever I purposefully boycott a show, it usually does rather well. I'm certainly in a minority when it comes to taste.
posted by ZachsMind at 7:20 PM on August 23, 2006

Seconded. Mencia sucks ass. Comedy Central lost a bajillion points in my book when they rushed that crap show out to try and replace the gap left by Chappelle.
posted by Bageena at 7:21 PM on August 23, 2006

I will merely copy n paste what I wrote elsewhere:

It's just a stop-gap to keep people entertained in front of their TVs, thus forming a much-needed dialogue between people of different races whose only shared cultural outlet is their television viewing habits. I'm sure we'll all learn so much about ourselves by the end of the season, and avert a race war in the process. Or at least that's programming's magnaminous view of their own importance.

Kill your television.
posted by eegphalanges at 7:27 PM on August 23, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

frogan writes 'Your favorite reality show sucks.'

The interesting thing is that, in this case, that is actually demonstrably true.
posted by signal at 7:33 PM on August 23, 2006

I'm amused to note that this would be the first season of survior where the white people are the minority. I wonder if the other people will specifically target them for that.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:35 PM on August 23, 2006

MetaFilter: Hour after hour of nothing more than people arguing.

/too on the nose?
posted by evilcolonel at 7:46 PM on August 23, 2006

I hope there's no swimming. I heard from someone once that the blacks can't swim.
posted by yeti at 7:52 PM on August 23, 2006

What are Australian Aboriginals?
posted by UbuRoivas at 7:59 PM on August 23, 2006

No one's said it yet so I will

SURVIVOR JUMPS TEH SHARK!
posted by storybored at 8:11 PM on August 23, 2006

Survivor has been so formulaic over the years that they don't even care about any actual survival, it's all about the reward game before commercial break number two and the immunity game before commercial break number three. There is no surviving, just the same giant puzzle/water platform/endurance crap brought to you by Pringles in a can.
posted by furtive at 8:17 PM on August 23, 2006

This is a lot of hullabaloo over nothing. This season won't last two episodes. Let me tell you why... the Blacks and Latinos miss the taping because they all showed up late. The Asians lost because the first challenge involved driving. And the whites were disqualified for not doing anything - because they didn't have anyone to pawn all the work off on.
posted by Ferreteer at 8:22 PM on August 23, 2006

Survivor: Montgomery, Ala.
posted by cowbellemoo at 8:30 PM on August 23, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

When they whittle the four groups down into two, they are going to divide them by blue-eyes and brown-eyes.
posted by Roger Dodger at 8:31 PM on August 23, 2006

As far as TV goes, this is a brilliant idea.

And, as far as TV goes, outside of HBO stuff, I think some reality stuff is among the best tv around. It is a social experiment and can be fascinating to watch.

mayor curley writes: I thought it was bad when The Amazing Race selected their token black team for the Family Edition and they were literally "The Black Family."

So... they should have not been allowed to compete because their last name was Black? Yeah, that's not racist. Why is it that people always remark at black people who are named Black but they never peep at all the white people surnamed White?

Also, suggesting that The Amazing Race is racist (as opposed to out and out saying it) is pretty weird in my opinion. The game's been won by black couples a couple times now, including once by a team who are arguably the best liked couple (Uchenna and Joyce) in the game's history and who certainly deserved it. If the show is indeed racist I doubt the producers would have put such a (black) couple on the show. The level of honesty, good sportsmanship, and honor they displayed as players (and people) was astounding and will be hard for anyone to surpass.

The show has also featured single gay men competing as well as gay couples (at least one team won). They've also had mixed race couples.

I think the only negative thing you can really say about the show is that they obviously hate the carpet munchers as, to my memory, there's been no woman-on-woman action teams.
posted by dobbs at 8:52 PM on August 23, 2006

Rush Limbaugh has weighed in with his predictions.

Why is it that people always remark at black people who are named Black but they never peep at all the white people surnamed White?
"I'm not black like Barry White, no I am white like Frank Black is."
posted by kirkaracha at 8:56 PM on August 23, 2006

In week 2, each group is infiltrated by a fraudster in makeup!

Actually, last year there was the reality series 'Black. White' where a black family and white family changed races (via make-up) on the F/X Network.
posted by ericb at 9:28 PM on August 23, 2006

Dobbs: mayor curley writes: I thought it was bad when The Amazing Race selected their token black team for the Family Edition and they were literally "The Black Family."

I was being tongue-in-cheek, but I don't blame you for missing it-- I didn't write it very well. Sorry!
posted by Mayor Curley at 4:09 AM on August 24, 2006

This isn't going to be nearly as interesting/outrageous/contraversial as people think. They've split the tribes before by sex, age... and that's always shaken up by the end of the second episode. They'll get big numbers for the premiere, hope people stay tuned after that, and it'll just end up a regular season, except whites won't outnumber non-whites 5 to 1. Not a bad idea at all, really.
posted by Roommate at 4:39 AM on August 24, 2006

dang it... controversial.
posted by Roommate at 4:40 AM on August 24, 2006

One of the contestants is the daughter of my mom's eye doctor.
posted by konolia at 5:54 AM on August 24, 2006

Who watches this shit? Seriously. Someone must be watching this crap, if the networks keep pumping out reality show after reality show. Whoever you are, you need to die.

I watch it. It's entertaining. I also watch "The Amazing Race." Glad to hear I "need to die." Misplaced outrage, much?
posted by pardonyou? at 6:16 AM on August 24, 2006

Considering I hadn't even considered thinking about Survivor since their All-Stars season, which was what? Two, three years ago? I'd say they've done a pretty good job drumming up media interest, good or bad, for an otherwise tired and played-out series.
posted by Spatch at 6:24 AM on August 24, 2006

"...erhm, I got nothing for the Hispanics."

That's all right, they'll just steal a name.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:41 AM on August 24, 2006

As a half-breed, I am not sure who to root for.
posted by flickroad at 6:46 AM on August 24, 2006

I can't believe nobody else has suggested that this season's nonsensical tribe names may include the Macaca tribe.
posted by britain at 7:31 AM on August 24, 2006

My idea for a reality show is Rehab Big Brother.

Fill a house full of heroin addicts and have them compete in increasingly degrading 'challenges' for decreasing amounts of methadone. Find out what happens when addicts stop being human and start being real.
posted by empath at 8:14 AM on August 24, 2006

We're missing the fun that'll happen at the end of the third or fourth episode, when they integrate the tribes from four to two. I imagine they'll let whichever team wins that week decide which other race they'd like to blend with, and no matter how you slice it, that's good television, especially if you get any explanations of "strategy."

Also, the only Reality TV I've ever liked (and I've worked in Reality TV quite a bit) was Last Comic Standing. No other reality show had the contestants tricking one of their own into hiding for an hour in a fake game of hide and seek, just because they felt like being assholes.
posted by Navelgazer at 9:15 AM on August 24, 2006

"I'm never playing [hide and seek] with you guys again."
posted by flickroad at 9:35 AM on August 24, 2006

As a half-breed, I am not sure who to root for.

Uh. Me too.
It's all I ever heard. Half breed. How I learned to hate the word. "He's no good" they warned. Both sides were against me since the day I was born.
posted by tkchrist at 10:17 AM on August 24, 2006

I watch it. It's entertaining. I also watch "The Amazing Race." Glad to hear I "need to die." Misplaced outrage, much?
posted by pardonyou? at 9:16 AM EST on August 24

Ditto
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 11:17 AM on August 24, 2006

I'd like to see this with individual victory conditions.

When victory equals you personally lasting blah blah blah days (or whatever) how long before you come to the conclusion that you'd be better off forming your own team with members of the other teams rather than hanging out with the guys whose only qualification is that they look sorta like you do.

Knowing how they’re going to stack this thing, I think you'd get a couple teams with different strategies forming and a couple absolute racists wandering around being cold and hungry. Unfortunately, while they stack these sorts of things like that, they also tend to have rules that punish competence and team work and reward being a skeevy weasel.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 1:58 PM on August 24, 2006

I hope this turns into the Stanford Prison Experiment for race instead of authority.

We already had a Stanford Prison Experiment for race. It was called Abu Ghraib.
posted by jonp72 at 2:51 PM on August 24, 2006

How come none of you PC bitches were complaining when they divided the tribes by gender????!1! How is this any different? If one is offended by the arrangement (unlike those actually participating in the competition) one should excercise one's phalanges on the remote and watch something else. What a bunch of whiners.
posted by HyperBlue at 3:29 PM on August 24, 2006

oraknabo writes "I hope this turns into the Stanford Prison Experiment for race instead of authority."

Er, how would that even work? The Stanford Prison Experiment was basically "how will people behave if we grant some of them authority?". A Stanford Prison Experiment for race would be "how will people behave if we grant them race?" -- That is, "How will white people act if we make them black, and how will Asian people act if we make them Hispanic, et al?" I don't see how this Survivor idea relates to that at all.
posted by Bugbread at 7:00 PM on August 24, 2006

How is this any different from "Survivor: Battle of the Sexes" that they do about every 4 seasons?
posted by cjoh at 2:19 PM on August 30, 2006

GM pulls its ‘Survivor’ sponsorship.
posted by ericb at 3:30 PM on August 30, 2006

others too--- ... Several other advertisers from previous seasons of “Survivor” also said they would not return for the next season, and said their decision was also unrelated to the new format. Among them are the Coca-Cola, Home Depot, United Parcel Service and Campbell Soup. ...

unrelated ; >
posted by amberglow at 3:24 PM on August 31, 2006