Crashvivor

It's official. Here comes Survivor riding the coattails of success of The Best Picture Of The Year. Because the only thing hotter than reptiles on aircraft right now is racial tension, the tribes on the upcoming season of Survivor will be segregated separated by race. Host Jeff Probst says that the move is in response to criticisms that the cast is not racially diverse enough. So why not just cast more people of color and have them assigned to tribes in other equally arbitrary but less offensive ways? Ah, because that's not enough of a "twist".

The whole thing just feels kind of icky. The cast members cannot really avoid feeling like they're representing their whole race on national television. And while there will certainly be opportunities for education on racial intra- and intergroup relations, Survivor doesn't really pack the educational punch that a show like Black. White. does. I guess it's not even that important since I haven't watched Survivor since that season where the Mormon girl didn't win, and Brian is the only person I know who still watches regularly. But it's because of these sorts of production ploys that, out of all the long-running reality shows, Survivor always will feel the most gimmicky. Feh.