In
Atlanta, Q100 radio's "The Bert Show"
took calls from listeners, most of whom
were bothered by the idea. "About 80
percent said this is socially
irresponsible, something that's gonna
separate us rather than bring us
together," said host Bert Weiss. The
show called competing DJ Frank Ski at
V103, a station with a large
African-American audience that was also
chilly toward the idea.
Series
host Jeff Probst said on "The Early
Show" Wednesday morning that "the idea
for this actually came from criticism
that 'Survivor' was not ethnically
diverse enough." He said the idea came
up during casting, when producers noted
how many contestants had a strong ethnic
identity.
"Early
Show" host Harry Smith — who was
supposed to be helping to hype the show
— said he was "dismayed" by the idea of
dividing the races, and called it a
"stunt" that had "gone too far."
Past
"Survivors" have started out with tribes
separated by gender and by age. But
while those divisions were accepted by
viewers as ways to keep the show fresh,
the new tribal division struck some
people as a ratings ploy that could
irritate racial sensitivities.
"There
was some minor questioning when they
split the contestants by sex, but this
seems to be by far a bigger reaction,"
said Andy Denhard, whose reality TV Web
site Realityblurred.com reported the
rumored idea several days ago.
"It's
natural to assume that certain groups
are going to have audience members
rooting for them simply because they
share ethnicity," Probst said Wednesday.
"At the end of the day, I think it'll
come down to what it always comes down
to: Who do I like?"
"Survivor: Cook Islands" debuts Sept. 14.
----
Sparky
Collins,
www.gambling911.com
Originally published August 24, 2006
11:36 am EDT
Jeff Probst confirmed rumors on Wednesday's
"The
Early Show" that the 20 castaways for "Survivor: Cook Islands" will be grouped by race,
will be divided into four tribes consisting of
whites, blacks, Asians and Hispanics.