Survivor Cook Islands

Will racially segregating the contestants have long term social implications?

There's a scene in one of the Pet Detective movies where Jim Carrey emerges, soaked, from a bathroom and proclaims loudly: "Do NOT go in there."

I say the same for the Survivor website (http://www.cbs.com/primetime/survivor13/) If you do you will immediately see who the winner is.

But others may be inclined to want to give the whole show a miss. After seeing the first episode this week, I'm inclined to think it's going to be just as addictive and exciting as previous Survivors.

In the first episode we saw 20 survivors jumping off an old wooden Jan Van Riebeeck type sailboat. They then paddled on color coded (appropriately enough) rafts to their respective islands.

Interestingly, there are 4 racial groups represented here: Asians, Hispanics, Caucasians and African Americans. More intriguing is that the 'white' and 'black' teams each have fewer men, just 2, to 3 women. The reverse is true of the other two teams. This could suggest (brief eye roll) an initial superiority could develop in those teams with more men (when sheer strength and athleticism is an important factor).

In the first episode there was already some abrasiveness. One of the Caucasian tribe members, Jonathan (a writer, producer and in fact an actor) 'inadvertantly' took one of the chickens that had been earmarked for the African American tribe. This might have been incidental in the scheme of things, as someone let both chickens fly the coop and disappear - uneaten - into the forest, except the African American tribe came last in the first challenge.

Coming last meant tribal council, but it also entitled the losing tribe to select an individual who would be banished, forthwith, to Exile Island. Thus the two black men quickly decided to send Jonathan to Exile Ssland. Shortly after, the 3 women in the African American tribe voted off Sekou, one of only two men on their tribe.

In an interesting aside, the Asian tribe (who also comfortably won the first challenge)demonstrated an interesting headache cure. Vietnamese hippi Cao Boi performed a bizarre face pinching ritual, which left a strange red blotch on his protege's face. His westernised cohorts thought it a bizarre treatment, but Brad (I think) did say that the headache had disappeared. Having been to Korea, I've seen similar strange cures being applied (needles under fingernails to cure stomachaches) with similar success.

So it is interesting to notice the cultural variations and cultural personalities, and how these differ from tribe to tribe. Will audiences take these to heart and will stereotypes be engendered? Unlikely. At worst people will merely be conscious of their own predispositions, and notice how these 'survive' in the context of the show. Even the host, Jeff Probst says he was 'uncomfortable' promoting a racially segregated cast. He has defended the idea though, saying that after 13 seasons the idea is to try different ideas to make things more interesting. Most reasonable people will probably see and appreciate the entertainment value in that, without focussing on anything else.

Beyond the antics on the islands, the show, and its contestants, has gained controversy from the word go. The majority of the cast are real actors who were recruited (they did not volunteer or turn up as in previous seasons). Another member of the cast, 30 year old JP Calderon, after being offered a modelling contract at a gay magazine called Instinct (after the show had ended), decided to come out of the closet. And Mexican Ozzy Lusth was filmed having sex with two women on a Playboy TV show called Foursome, before his appearance on Survivor. There's more but let's not go there.

Suffice it to say, a controversial show tends to interesting, but this is not always the case. General Motors, the sponsor, didn't feel this would be the case and pulled out. We shall have to see for ourselves, won't we?