news.yahoo.com — The controversial new format of the CBS reality show "Survivor" -- dividing teams of contestants by race -- proved the series' least-watched debut episode since its first season, Nielsen Media Research reported on Friday.
Sep 17, 2006 View in Crawl 4
ergo98Sep 18, 2006
Good point. It's important that at any time there is only one type of entertainment available. I vote for "Medical drama with a headstrong - but brilliant - tortured soul". Sound good?People were predicting the imminent demise of the franchise after the first had finished. Then as reality TV flourished, they predicted that the whole genre would die. Pretty funny looking around now, years later. And it's funny that the -worst- reality TV (and the ones that die the quickest) are the ones where they try to hybridize (like that terrible treasure hunt across the US one).
fauxpawSep 18, 2006
Real World -- 1992Survivor -- 2000
jhuebelSep 18, 2006
Honestly, I see it differently than you do. I'm racially "insensitive". That is, I don't judge an individual based on their race. The fact that Survivor has created such an uproar is all the more interesting.From a strictly academic point of view, here's what I saw on each of the tribes with regard to the racial segregation:The white tribe avoided discussing race, likely for fear of being labelled racist. So the politically correct fallback is to call it an interesting "social experiment". Sad, really. Many white people are simply scared to discuss race in today's society (particularly in the US). Dialog is important.The asian tribe seemed more balanced about the subject. One of the guys talked about the "social experiment" aspect, but also admitted that it was nice to have better representation of minorities. We can assume the he means (to some degree) that he appreciates that individuals of his own ethnicity are better represented. However, he also mentioned that within the asian tribe, there were ethnic subdivisions as well.I don't remember enough about the hispanic tribe to get a good handle on their opinion of the racial segregation. But my overall sense is that the racial aspect of the game wasn't particularly important to them. It may indeed be, but I just honestly don't remember.The African-American tribe seemed to take the opposite approach than the white or asian tribes. There was much discussion of the racial element of the game, in particular that the tribe needed to "represent".So I have a few suppositions, for which I'd love to hear comments from other diggers:The white tribe seems to be representative of the common fear among whites in the US of discussing race. That lack of dialog hurts the discussion in that it creates an imbalance. If I could be blunt, it's the fault of white people that they have allowed the opportunity for discussion to be taken away from them.The asian tribe seems pragmatic about the whole thing. I'll admit that I identify most with that group, since it seems that they're open to discussing race, as well as finding the racial aspect of the game interesting. However, the previews for this week's episode tend to suggest that Cao Boi offends some of the other tribemembers with Vietnamese jokes of some kind. I'm curious to see how that plays out.Again, I can't comment much on the hispanic tribe. But I got the sense that they weren't as interested in the racial aspect of the game. Kind of a "come what may" attitude. I missed the first few minutes of the show, though. So maybe someone from that tribe was interviewed early on. Please feel to correct me.The African-American tribe seemed overly concerned about the racial aspect of the game. In particular, Sekou talked about the race aspect quite a it. As is common in the US, African Americans are very sensitive about race. They are a counterpoint to the white tribe. The white tribe tries to tip toe around the subject (to a fault) while the African American tribe focuses too heavily on the subject (again, to a fault).I have an opinion on all this and how it relates to race relations within the US. But I'll save that for another day. I'd like to see how you guys reply to what I've said here first. I'd also ask that other diggers refrain from digging down replies to my post, even if they're inflamatory. I'm interested in hearing what others have to say, even if it may be hard to talk about.
ckerstSep 18, 2006
How can you say it wasn't watched when it was the number 1 show for the day?
fishyjoeSep 18, 2006
Survivor still costs a fraction of what other shows do. Even with it's lower ratings it's still very profitable. There aren't going to be any actors demanding a million an episode.
boristubakSep 18, 2006
that's only because he can't pronounce a 3 syllable word :-D
ron77roxOct 2, 2006
I just learn that Survivor have tossed out the Racially Divided Teams concept. I knew this social experiment wasn't gonna last.
cobraanJul 23, 2007
<a class="user" href="http://digg.com/television/VIDEO_Sadistic_Dutch_Reality_Show_Coming_to_US">http://digg.com/television/VIDEO_Sadistic_Dutch_Reality_Show_Coming_to_US</a>Has got some videos of an insane new reality show. Take a look.