SURVIVOR - WILL SURVIVOR SURVIVE LATEST CONTROVERSY?

WILL SURVIVOR SURVIVE LATEST CONTROVERSY?

The producer of Survivor is attempting to defuse controversy over his plans to divide "tribes" on the show along racial lines next season -- even before the controversy begins. Following the announcement on Wednesday that the each tribe will be either all black, Asian-American, Hispanic or white, producer Mark Burnett told the New York Times that his intent was not to promote racial divisiveness. "In America today," Burnett told the newspaper, "even though people may work together, they do tend in their private lives to divide along social and ethnic lines." He acknowledged that he was reacting at least in part to criticism that the show lacked ethnic diversity. "We're always hearing about how we only have two token blacks on the show," he said. So, for the new season, the show attempted to reach out to social and church groups to bring in more non-white applicants. "We got so many good people we expanded the number of contestants to 20 instead of the usual 16," he said. Nevertheless, Burnett said, he was aware that the format would produce criticism. "I know it's going to be controversial," he told the Times. "I'm not an idiot."

24/08/2006