"Survivor" Divides Contestants by Race; GM Withdraws Sponsorship

By Linda Orlando

The world’s largest automaker announced Thursday that it will no longer be a sponsor of CBS’ hit series "Survivor." Although GM spokeswoman Ryndee Carney said that the company made its decision in the normal course of making its media buys months ago, before CBS announced the changes planned for "Survivor," some skeptics are wondering why the company would have passed on sponsoring a sure-fire hit.

Just a week ago, CBS made the announcement on the Early Show, saying that contestants will be divided into four tribes by ethnicity, with blacks, whites, Latinos, and Asians in separate groups. "Survivor" host Jeff Probst said that the idea for the change "actually came from the criticism that 'Survivor' was not ethnically diverse enough." Adding that the show is basically just a social experiment, Probst explained, "This is adding another layer to that experiment." So far contestants have had mixed reactions to the racial divisions. The castaways on this season’s show, which debuts September 14 and takes place on the Cook Islands in the South Pacific, will include a police officer, a heavy metal guitarist, an attorney, and a nail salon manager.

"Survivor" creator Mark Burnet defended the changes to the show’s format Tuesday, saying that most of the people who are criticizing the new approach haven’t even seen the show, and therefore don’t understand how the series works. "By putting people in tribes, they clearly have to get rid of people of their own ethnicity," he told the Associated Press. Burnett said since blacks will be voting off blacks, Asians will be voting off Asians, and so on, "it's not racial at all."

However, many people have been openly critical, including a group of New York City officials, who say that the new approach promotes divisiveness. City Councilman John Liu asked, "How could anybody be so desperate for ratings?" The group has asked CBS to reconsider. CBS Entertainment, which is part of New York-based CBS Corp., has defended the ethnic twist, saying that the show will stick with the format despite the criticism.

General Motors has sponsored "Survivor" since its premiere in May 2000, and has remained as the show’s only automotive sponsor for six years. But that sponsorship has come to a halt, and the announcement by GM has many people doubting the company’s explanations for severing their "Survivor" ties. GM’s spokeswoman Carney said that the company is shifting some of its media dollars from prime-time television to more live sports, awards shows, and other big events, particularly shows that actually involve cars and trucks. "There’s a limited number of possibilities as to how you can integrate a car or truck in a show that people spend their whole time on an island," she said.

CBS spokesman Chris Ender said that GM had notified the network of its decision long before the new format of "Survivor" was announced, and that the automaker had no knowledge that the competition would be divided along racial lines. "They informed us several months ago that they wouldn't be part of the upcoming season. It's unrelated to the controversy surrounding the upcoming edition," Ender said, without commenting on whether any other sponsors had left the show.

So the talking heads for both GM and CBS claim that the two announcements have nothing to do with each other, even though GM’s announcement came just a week after CBS’s revelation of the new show format. Both companies say the decisions were made months ago, and were just announced at the same time. Uh-huh.