Segregated 'Survivor' Stirs Furor

Politicians Want It Canceled, Viewers And Talk Show Hosts Weigh In

(CBS/AP)  Loyal fans of the show countered that segregating by race was just another way to divide up the contestants, pointing out that in previous seasons contestants were divided up by gender or age.

"Come on people.. This is just a show" wrote tesslynn83. "It is entertainment... The contestants are there by choice, It's not something that was forced on them! It is not segregation, it is just a different twist on things."

2Some people weren't so much appalled by the concept of creating racial "tribes" as they were by what they saw as under-representation of some ethnic groups or regions of the United States.

They asked why there were no Native American or South Asian contestants on the show. Several people complained that 13 out of the 20 contestants are from California.

Others, like vidiot3 had their own suggestions for how to divide things up: "Here's a concept for CBS, next time divide the tribes by Democrat, Republican, Independent, and Greens and see who the audience roots for."

Talk show hosts on television and radio had their own unique points of view.

Conan O'Brien, tongue firmly in cheek, told CNN Thursday, "I think that's appropriate in this day and age, with all the tension and violence and conflict, is to have a reality show where people duke it out over race and religious belief. Where are they having it this year? The Gaza Strip?"

Syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh had already begun handicapping teams Wednesday — and pressing buttons.

"The African-American tribe, tough to handicap on this one," he said, "because ... there are many characteristics here that you would think give them the lead and the heads up in terms of skill and athleticism and so forth. The Asians, as I say — the brainiacs of the bunch. The Hispanic tribe — they've probably shown the most survival characteristics."

He added: "We're speculating among ourselves that if the white tribe behaves as it historically has they will bring along vials of diseases; they will end up oppressing the other groups; they will deny them benefits; deny them their property, steal it from them, and you know, put them on some kind of a benefit program."

Luis Jimenez, host of the popular syndicated morning radio show "El Vacilon de la Mañana," told TheShowBuzz.com that the Latino team won't be starving or eating bugs to survive.

"All the other teams will be mad because the Latinos will have food," he joked. "They'll have a pig roasting over a fire and the other teams will be asking 'Where'd you get that?' They'll be, like, 'Oh, my cousin got a boat and brought us over a pig to roast ...' "

"Survivor: Amazon" winner Jenna Morasca, who writes Jenna's TV Journal on TheShowbuzz.com and hosts "Survivor Live" on CBS.com, said that although the grouping of the teams is controversial, it won't hurt the show in the long run.

"I say go for it," she said. "It's risky, it's ballsy, but that's what 'Survivor' is. I feel that it's going to be just like any other 'Survivor' and the race division is really going to play very little into it."

She added: "Jeff Probst stated in an interview that they got rid of all the racist people applying in casting, so this is just a racially diverse group that are separated into tribes this way. I think it will get the 'Survivor' motor running again, but it won't be the only focus of the show."