SURVIVOR - SEGREGATION OUSTED FROM SURVIVOR

SEGREGATION OUSTED FROM SURVIVOR

In the end, racial and ethnic segregation on Survivor survived foronly two weeks. On Thursday night’s episode, host Jeff Probst suddenlyand without explanation announced to the contestants, "You have beenliving together as tribes divided based on ethnicity. It is now time tointegrate." Chicago Tribune columnist Maureen Ryan wrote on herblog Friday, "CBS certainly got what it wanted by announcing that theshow would divide the tribes initially based on ethnicity. An agingfranchise got a huge dose of free publicity and a show that had become justanother program instead of sensation was being talked about once more. ...And what did we get? We got played, America." In today’s (Monday)Los Angeles Times, Jon Caramanica, the music editor of BET.com andfreelance journalist, commented, “The producers might have beenvindicated had they seen the concept through a few more episodes - and hadrace actually become integral to the text of the show, rather than justserving as a neat visual ploy -- but given its brief run, they only come offas frightened -- and relieved to get back on familiar ground.”

02/10/2006