'Survivor' Race Experiment Ends

Tribes Divided By Race Merge After Two Episodes

NEW YORK, Sept. 29, 2006 | by Amy Bonawitz

(CBS/AP)  All the hubbub about the "Survivor" ethnic experiment turned out to be pretty worthless.

Why? Because after only two episodes, producers merged the black, white, Asian and Latino tribes into two mixed-race gangs on the CBS reality show Thursday night. No explanation was given for the quick abandonment of segregation; it seemed to pass by so quickly as to mean nothing.

"We're back to America. We're a melting pot," said Parvati, a boxer on the new Raro tribe. "I love it."

The two new tribes competed in a grueling challenge that seemed better designed to get prisoners of war to talk. Each person strapped on a 15-pound weight, and trudged through knee-deep water around a course, with one tribe trying to catch the other. For any person who dropped out, a teammate had to carry their weight.

The Raro tribe won. For the losing Aitus, it meant more politicking than a brokered convention. No one knew or trusted each other much, so they had to feel their way into alliances.

The result was to send Cecilia packing in a 5-3 vote.

This morning on The Early Show, Cecilia told co-anchor Rene Syler that the team separation didn't bother her.

"Some people felt uncomfortable when it was sort of segregated, but I really didn't. I loved, loved, loved my original tribe," she said. "I didn't have enough time to get to know the extended tribe."

Remember last week's reject, Billy, talking about how he made a love-at-first-sight connection with another player, Candice?

She thought he was nuts, too.

The race-based angle to this season's show had brought a firestorm of criticism down on the show and CBS Corp. Several major advertisers pulled out.

©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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