# Survivor 9/25 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 25, 2003, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-9-25/203717 "2003-09-25T11:48:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Balduran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cc9497/32.png) [@Balduran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balduran)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2003, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-9-25/203717/61 "2003-09-27T16:34:45Z")
I haven’t seen all the series, but I’m suprised at how little stuff people have made. You’d think they’d start projects just to break the monotony. The first things I thought of too was copying the spear with local materials, and making floor mats. By the time the game ends they should have a car that runs on coconuts. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2003, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-9-25/203717/62 "2003-09-27T16:56:21Z")
Regarding the laziness factor: Wasn’t Sean from S1 pretty dang lazy? (Do I have the name right? The doctor, who voted people off alphbetically.) And Susan Hawk, too. I think there have been lazy-ass slackers in every version of Survivor, and they haven’t always been black people. It’s really not fair to say all the black contestants are lazy. > [@](#): > > \*\*By the time the game ends they should have a car that runs on coconuts. \*\*Or at least a radio. You think they could figure out a way to weave hammocks and build huts and sew tuxedos and evening gowns, too. Just in case Eva Gabor drops by, ya know. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Horrifying\_Howler\_Monkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/df788c/32.png) [@Horrifying\_Howler\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horrifying_Howler_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2003, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-9-25/203717/63 "2003-09-27T17:19:30Z")
They had a coconut phone in season 1. ---
**Author:** ![lolagranola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ea5d25/32.png) [@lolagranola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lolagranola)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2003, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-9-25/203717/64 "2003-09-27T17:36:07Z")
I _know_ it’s all in the editing, but… HOW THE HELL IS MORGAN GOING TO WIN ANYTHING NOW? They’re exhausted. 6 days on the island and they haven’t even been able to figure out how to get a good nights sleep yet. They’re not getting any more rested as the days go on. I don’t think they they’re eating as well as Drake. They’re short two team members, and of the members they have left, one wants to leave, and another one (Lil) feels like a complete outsider. They have no team spirit, and haven’t shown any since the beginning. And they have much less than Drake, due to their completely disorganized shopping trip in the village. And now they’ve even lost their freakin’ tarp!!! I have to admit that I like Drake a lot better, and some evil part of me grins when Morgan loses. I liked them a lot better from the moment they hit the beach in the first episode, and maybe I’m just watching this year to see how they fair. So far, pretty damn good. ---
**Author:** ![riserius1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ab992/32.png) [@riserius1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/riserius1)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2003, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-9-25/203717/65 "2003-09-27T21:06:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lolagranola \* > \*\*I _know_ it’s all in the editing, but… > > HOW THE HELL IS MORGAN GOING TO WIN ANYTHING NOW? > > They’re exhausted. 6 days on the island and they haven’t even been able to figure out how to get a good nights sleep yet. They’re not getting any more rested as the days go on. I don’t think they they’re eating as well as Drake. They’re short two team members, and of the members they have left, one wants to leave, and another one (Lil) feels like a complete outsider. They have no team spirit, and haven’t shown any since the beginning. And they have much less than Drake, due to their completely disorganized shopping trip in the village. And now they’ve even lost their freakin’ tarp!!! > > I have to admit that I like Drake a lot better, and some evil part of me grins when Morgan loses. I liked them a lot better from the moment they hit the beach in the first episode, and maybe I’m just watching this year to see how they fair. So far, pretty damn good. \*\* My guess is that they’ll do what they did in Africa(where the same situation occured) and have some of the members switch tribes. Chris W ---
**Author:** ![elf6c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c57346/32.png) [@elf6c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elf6c)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2003, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-9-25/203717/66 "2003-09-27T22:18:03Z")
Just once I wish they would allow a crappy team to get slaughtered. They made the mistakes, let them suffer. Watch get crushed goofy team swaps, or nerfing the challenges down to Survivor tic-tac-toe. Make a true Survivor game- where the weak get their ass handed to them. Besides it would make the last 6 episodes pretty interesting when Drake finally has to compete against each other. Won’t happen though. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2003, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-9-25/203717/67 "2003-09-27T23:41:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by elf6c \* > \*\*Just once I wish they would allow a crappy team to get slaughtered. They made the mistakes, let them suffer. Watch get crushed goofy team swaps, or nerfing the challenges down to Survivor tic-tac-toe. Make a true Survivor game- where the weak get their ass handed to them. > \*\* I agree **completely.** I’m not a fan of the team swaps when its purpose is to save a team like this. I’d love (for once) to see a team just get totally cannibalized one by one till the merge. ---
**Author:** ![Madawc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@Madawc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Madawc)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2003, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-9-25/203717/68 "2003-09-28T05:34:50Z")
> [@](#): > > By the time the game ends they should have a car that runs on coconuts. I’d be aiming for monkey butlers first hehe. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2003, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-9-25/203717/69 "2003-09-28T08:22:31Z")
I have to say I agree with Lib on the racism issue. In fact, I raised the same point a couple of seasons back. It’s true that there have been a number of unlikeable white players on the show, but virtually all of the black players have been portrayed in unlikeable ways, often with anti-black stereotypes. Gervase, season 1 - portrayed as lazy. Nick, season 2 - portrayed as lazy Clarence, season 3 - portrayed as dishonest Sean, season 4 - portrayed as anti-white Osten, season 7 - portrayed as lazy Of course all of these black men had a positive characteristic; they were good athletes. Then consider the black women on the show: Alicia, Vecepia, Ghandia, Joanna, Tijuana. All loud and abrasive. I’ll admit Ted from season 5 was a partial break from the pattern. But even he was shown as big and menacing - and perhaps a sexual predator. Now Jeff Probst may have said this was a surprise to him (although what else was he going to say - “I expected it. You know what those people are like.”) He might even be telling the truth. But Probst isn’t running the show, Mark Burnett is. He chooses the players and _he chooses how they will be shown when he edits the raw footage_. So either only unpleasant black people are being chosen for this show. Or ordinary black people are being made to look unpleasant thru the editing. Either way, it was Burnett’s call to make. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2003, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-9-25/203717/70 "2003-09-28T09:56:38Z")
Shayna > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Shayna_ > **And I think that’s utter crap. Jeff Probst has said over and over and OVER again that the contestants ALWAYS surprise him. He thinks certain people will behave a certain way and it’s never what he expects. So what makes you think he’s a liar? Because that’s exactly what you’re implying when you say that he’s type-casting black men in a bigotted way in order to show them as lazy, arrogant and theiving.** Oy veh. You really shouldn’t make so many **ass** umptions. First, just because Jeff Probst has said something over and OVER again does not make it so. Bob Eubanks said over and OVER again that nothing like up-the-butt ever aired on his show. [He was wrong.](http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/newlywed.htm) > [@](#): > > _From Snopes_ > > [Entertainment Weekly, 1997] > > EW: I’ve gotta ask you about the famous “That would be in the butt, Bob” story . . . > > EUBANKS: It never happened. No matter where I go, it’s mentioned three or four times a day. Everybody swears they saw it. I’m going to write a book and call it That Would Be in the Book, Bob. People can be mistaken without lying. Therefore, your loaded question about what makes me think Probst is a liar is unfounded, illogical, and irrelevant. > [@](#): > > _Orginally posted by Shayna_ > **The ONLY reason you can name more white men and women who weren’t lazy, arrogant and theiving is because there have been more OF them.** No, that isn’t the only reason. It’s merely the only reason that you could think of. > [@](#): > > _Orginally posted by Shayna_ > **I didn’t watch Survivor 1, …** Well then, you missed Gervase Peterson. He, too, had a stellar bio blurb on CBS’s site. But Gervase was portrayed as lazy. This is not news. Even [CBS.com](http://CBS.com) itself [admits this](http://www.cbs.com/daytime/atwt/behind/specials/gervase/): > [@](#): > > If the Survivor craze swept you away last summer, you probably remember GERVASE PETERSON, the charming tribe member–with the lazy reputation. > [@](#): > > _Orginally posted by Shayna_ > **…so skipping ahead to Survivor 2 we have Nick, whose biography reads…** No one ever said that CBS misrepresented black men its website bios. The assertion on the table is that _Survivor_ and other RTV shows depict black men in a negative stereotypical way. Do you understand the difference? Promotional bios (which you’re quoting) versus TV shows (which is where the problem occurs). > [@](#): > > _Orginally posted by Shayna_ > \*\*Please tell me how he was type-cast as a lazy, arrogant thief. > \*\* If I tell you, you won’t believe me obviously, so here are some other viewpoints. (Incidentally, if you’ll bother to visit the many Survivor discussion boards, you’ll see that I am far from alone in holding my opinion.) From the NJ Star-Ledger [Entertainment writer](http://warliberal.blogspot.com/2002_03_24_warliberal_archive.html) (The original SL link is dead - this is an archived quote from it): > [@](#): > > Alan Sepinwall on TV: Does ‘Survivor’ cast black men in a bad light? > > I like “Survivor”, but the answer is “definitely, yes.” > > There have been four series of “Survivor” thus far. Each one has had one black male and one black female – which in itself is a bit of a warning sign. (Three of the four times, the two African-Americans have been on the same team.) All of the black men have been young and muscular. In the first two “Survivors”, the black man was portrayed as lazy; this was certainly a case of editing in the second series. Nick Brown, a military officer and a Harvard Law student, was in the background most of the time, getting face time only when he got sick and was unable to work – so he could be shown as lazy. In the third series, they broke with the burgeoning tradition by showing the black male as not lazy but a thief – hardly an upgrade. And the fourth series has moved back into laziness, with the addition of seemingly spurious claims of racism. From gossip writer [Jennifer Weiner](http://jenniferweiner.blogspot.com/2002_03_17_jenniferweiner_archive.html): > [@](#): > > With Survivor, it’s all villains, all the time. There’s nobody I want to root for, too many people to root against. And the characterizations have gotten really lazy. Hmm, a brainless, busty blonde. A homophobic, sexist, blue-collar guy with a funny accent. A black man who doesn’t want to work too hard. Haven’t seen people like these since…well, since last Survivor. From [Survivor Review](http://www.angelfire.com/mi/serfsup/s4wk4.html): > [@](#): > > A lot of folks seriously question Burnett’s consistant casting of black men. Even Nick Brown, aspiring law student and future Navy JAG from Survivor: Outback, was accused by some of his teammates as being lazy. From RTV critic Chris Write, writing for [Poppolitics](http://www.poppolitics.com/articles/printerfriendly/2001-10-22-borans.shtml): > [@](#): > > So far, it’s hard to predict where any of these contestants are headed, but one thing is clear: Survivor doesn’t disappoint when it comes to mishandling race. In both the original Survivor and Survivor 2, we saw each season’s token African-American male, Gervase and Nick, portrayed, to varying degrees, as lazy. They’d be sitting around doing nada, or slacking during a challenge, while their tribemates worked their butts off. In interviews post-Survivor, Nick and Gervase complained that this was merely selective editing – executive producer Mark Burnett and Co. making good use of labeling (playing up behavior that conforms to labels or stereotypes and ignoring behavior that doesn’t). From Post-Gazette TV Editor, [Rob Owen](http://www.post-gazette.com/tv/20010407survivor5.asp) > [@](#): > > Lazy Nick, who followed in the footsteps of last summer’s Lazy Gervase, prayed for relief from the outback and got it at tribal council when he was predictably voted off. (Why does executive producer Mark Burnett feed into stereotypes by depicting all black men on his shows as lazy layabouts?) (You can find hundreds of these if you Google “Survivor lazy black men”.) > [@](#): > > _Orginally posted by Shayna_ > **Yup. Looks type-cast to me. (Not)** Again, you’re quoting the bios, not the show. > [@](#): > > _Orginally posted by Shayna_ > **Yes, I can see it now. He was born in Harlem, so he must be a scheming, lying, thieving, lazy thug. Nevermind that he’s worked for a homeless shelter, as a school counselor and is a junior high school teacher. He black, he bad. Right. I don’t think they came any more lazy and arrogant than Rob Mariano that season!** Are you being deliberately obtuse? I’m not saying that Sean was lazy. I’m saying that THE SHOW _portrayed_ him as lazy. Can you understand the difference? Even the cast members themselves (except for Rob, whom you’ve villanized) portrayed Sean as lazy. From [CBSNews.com](http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/05/17/survivor/main509399.shtml): > [@](#): > > Rector was asked about other castaways. “A lot of survivors who came through here - except from Boston Rob who loves you - had some interesting words about you and didn’t necessarily describe you in glowing ways. Everything from angry to lazy.” [BET.com](http://BET.com) writer James Hill laments in an article titled [Why We Can’t Survive “Survivor”](http://www.bet.com/articles/0,1048,c5gb2093-2750-1,00.html#boardsAnchor): > [@](#): > > Are we really as “lazy” and “confrontational” as some of the past contestants have been labeled? > [@](#): > > _Orginally posted by Shayna_ > **I don’t recall Ted from season 5 being lazy at all. I recall him being screwed over by that bitch, Ghandia. Nor do I see any reason to believe that he was type-cast as an angry, lazy, arrogant black man, given his bio, either.** Again with the bio. Did I ever say that CBS had misrepresented black men in its bios? No. So why is that the ONLY source you rely on? But you’re right. Ted wasn’t portrayed ON THE SHOW as lazy. He was portrayed ON THE SHOW as a rapist or molestor who felt up women and squeezed their boobs while they slept. > [@](#): > > _Orginally posted by Shayna_ > **And we didn’t have a black man “represented” last season.** Which would have been the perfect opportunity to present a black man who is honorable, hard working, and of good moral character. You might not believe me, but they do exist. > [@](#): > > _Orginally posted by Shayna_ > **Also, as someone previously mentioned, this whole “vote me out, I’m feeling sick” could very well have been a PLOT by him and the rest of the tribe could’ve been totally in on it. For all we know it was a brilliant move on their part to throw Ryan off guard and weed out Lil’s loyalty to the team.** Right. And if my grandmother had balls, she’d be my grandfather. Woulda coulda shoulda. We’re talking about PORTRAYAL here. Do you understand what that means? Do you honestly think the show portrayed him as delightfully cunning and intelligent? That’s not what I saw. I saw him being accused of being a wuss, with footage of him playing football, running and jumping, all the while complaining that his body had had it. I saw him being portrayed as a liar and quitter. There was absolutely ZERO footage to suggest that he was building some sort of master plan that involved giving people the impression that he is helpless and hopeless. > [@](#): > > _Orginally posted by Shayna_ > \*\* think you’re looking for something that’s just not there.\*\* I think you’re not looking past your nose. You act like this is something you’ve never heard of and that I’m making all this up out of the blue. And it isn’t just _Survivor_, as I said. It’s the whole of RTV. There are a bazillion comments out there about this matter as just a few minutes on Google would demonstrate. Here’s one example, from Ben Turner in an article titled [Exploitation of Blackness](http://benturner.com/soapbox/2002/03_31.php): > [@](#): > > For instance, what’s with this Sean guy on Survivor: Marquesas? Before anyone pulls the race card, he’s already proclaiming the former fighter pilot in the group to be a wannabe leader (even though the guy was TRAINED to be a leader) and that Sean himself is the true leader of the group even though he does nothing to help. Then he says he hears the Roots music because his group makes him work so hard when he’d rather rest. Then he talks about only being able to bond with Vecepia, the other black person on this season. > > This season of Real World has a black guy, Theo, who was being overly forward to the black girl in the cast, upsetting her and the others in the house, and anyway she turns out to be a lesbian, and since Theo is hardcore Christian, he doesn’t approve of gays and lets everyone know that’s how he feels. And no one will change his mind of that, mister, even if it means not attending events that all the other cast members attend. > > Real World has a long history of problems with black members of the cast, including: a sexual harassment incident leading to expulsion from the house (LA), Kevin (NYC) instigating race arguments with the cast, the cast in New Orleans treating the naive Mormon like an idiot for not knowing black history, etc. Here’s another from the Miami Herald’s Cary Darling in an article titled [Reality TV just enhances stereotypes](http://www.jsonline.com/enter/tvradio/aug00/blacktv02080100.asp): > [@](#): > > 1992: In the debut season of MTV’s “The Real World,” set in New York, racially conscious and contentious Kevin is accused of throwing a candlestick at one of his white roommates, Julie. (Cameras weren’t present, so it’s a case of his word against hers.) > > 1993: In the show’s second season, in Los Angeles, David is the first cast member to get kicked out of “The Real World” “phat pad” because his roughhousing gets out of hand and the women in the cast feel threatened. > > 1997: Syrus, from the Boston edition, makes the moves on anything wearing an approximation of a skirt and brings lots of women back to the house. > > 1998: Stephen, in the Seattle “Real World,” is forced to go to anger management sessions after slapping housemate Irene. > > 1999: As for Teck, from the Hawaiian “Real World,” well, see Syrus above. > > 2000: William, from “Big Brother,” is booted from the house because of his perceived hostile and confrontational attitude. Gervase, from “Survivor,” admits on the show that he does no work and is the laziest castaway (his remarks sparked a comedic rebuke from black humorist David Alan Grier on CBS’ “The Early Show” the following day). Difficult David, from the current New Orleans season of “The Real World” and, to a lesser extent, lover-boy Laterrian, from the current “Road Rules,” seem to be trying to rip a page from Cyrus and Teck’s bulging “booty call” handbook. I think you need to look at a few sources other than the CBS bios. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Tiger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Mama\_Tiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Tiger)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2003, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-9-25/203717/71 "2003-09-28T13:36:39Z")
You know, after all this argument, **Libertarian** , (much of which I agree with), I still have to ask the question: What if Osten is being portrayed as a whiny, lazy ass because he IS a whiny, lazy ass? It’s not like he didn’t give the producers mega-footage to make that portrayal not only easy but nearly falling-off-a-log easy. How many times did he complain he was going to get pneumonia? Even stereotypes sometimes are based on truth. Not all the lazy portrayals are of black men, either. Can anyone else say “Clay in Thailand”? And I have to admit, of the people I dislike on the Morgan team, my deepest hatred is reserved for Andrew, the white male self-proclaimed alpha. Any 40-year-old who starts screaming at a 19-year-old kid before they’ve even gotten off the boat (according to Ryan on the Early Show), before he even knows the kid’s name, before he even knows if the kid can do anything useful for the tribe, based _solely_ on his 90-pound-weakling image, who sets the kid up as inept when he’s clearly doing his best (in the first immunity challenge) and who sends the kid out first in the reward challenge just to humiliate his physical weakness – I’m sorry, now THAT is a despicable human. I’ll bet he’s the kind of lawyer who screams at his secretary, too. And who’s his target going to be with his favorite 90-pound-weakling gone? Lil, the older woman who was the ONLY one on his team to do well on the swimming part of the RC? Probably. Because, after all, she’s not part of the “in” crowd. ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2003, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-9-25/203717/72 "2003-09-28T14:56:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Libertarian \* > > Oy veh. You really shouldn’t make so many **ass** umptions. You know, I got this far and pretty much stopped reading. The moment you call someone an **ass** outside of the Pit (and unprovoked, no less) is the moment you’ve lost the argument, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2003, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-9-25/203717/73 "2003-09-28T19:05:51Z")
Mama Tiger > [@](#): > > You know, after all this argument, Libertarian, (much of which I agree with), I still have to ask the question: What if Osten is being portrayed as a whiny, lazy ass because he IS a whiny, lazy ass? It’s not like he didn’t give the producers mega-footage to make that portrayal not only easy but nearly falling-off-a-log easy. How many times did he complain he was going to get pneumonia? Even stereotypes sometimes are based on truth. Oh, I agree with you. That’s true. But as you can see from the documentation I provided, there’s a pattern here. Sometimes a bug is just a bug, but sometimes it’s a virus. * * * Shayna I apologize. I did not mean to insult you. But I did mean to show you why dismissing my opinion with ridicule was not the wisest decision you ever made. ---
**Author:** ![Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7cd45c/32.png) [@Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glory)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2003, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-9-25/203717/74 "2003-09-28T19:53:00Z")
The fact that contestants act differently from their audition/blurb on the island is not limited to black people. What about Stephanie? Where was the girl who did a halfway naked dance on her audition tape? She huddled on the beach miserably until voted off. It must be frustrating to the producers of Survivor as well. Why on earth would they want the type of negative publicity involved with **deliberately** selecting minority contestants to act in a stereotypical way? When you read the bios for Nick and Osten and Ted, you can almost see the producers thinking, “okay, this is a serious player.” I think the producers have nearly gone out of their way to try to cast who are ambitious and hard workers in their daily lives. Seriously, reading through the bios, watching the audition tapes, what reasons would the producers have to cast these individuals as lazy? They don’t come across that way at all. I think it’s just poor luck. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2003, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-9-25/203717/75 "2003-09-28T21:05:39Z")
Burnett does a lot more than just watch the audition tapes and make his picks. The tapes may weed out a majority of the possible contestants, but the people who are considered as probables are carefully reviewed and questioned. That said there have been surprises; Kel from Season 2 was an example - apparently he had an explosive temper and Burnett chose him figuring he’d lose it at some point during the show. But Kel had realized this would be counter-productive and had vowed to himself to not lose control no matter how he was provoked (and those of you that saw the show, know he was extremely provoked). But the bottom line is that regardless of pre-show intentions or on-show actions, the way people are portrayed is 90% a matter of post-show editing. There are hundreds of hours of footage taken of each player during the course of the game but only a few minutes will be shown on camera. Burnett has consistently chosen to show the least flattering and most offensive moments on all of his black contestants. And it’s happened too consistently to be written off as a coincidence. In my opinion, the only question that remains is whether Burnett is racist himself or is just pandered to what he believes is a racist segment of his audience. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2003, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-9-25/203717/76 "2003-09-28T21:25:46Z")
On a seperate note, can someone confirm something for me? In the first episode as the Drakes were boarding the boat one of the players (Shawn?) was talking about how he had stashed forty dollars to pay for their boat. At the time, I assumed he meant he had put aside forty of the balboas they had been given. But I was talking about the show with a co-worker yesterday and he said that the guy had kept forty of his own dollars in his pocket rather than turn them in to Jeff Probst on the yacht and used this additional money to pay for the boat trip. If true, another slick move from Drake. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2003, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-9-25/203717/77 "2003-09-28T23:35:16Z")
I remember the quote from the dude who kept his own money and I thought it was pretty clear that it was 40 USD. I agree that it was a good move. Ditto for the lady who kept her gold necklace. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-9-25/203717/78 "2003-09-29T14:35:19Z")
On a matter far more important than possible racism - anyone else catch Skinny Ryan’s **Strongbad** reference with the treemail? Too bad he won’t be around anymore. Could have been entertaining. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-9-25/203717/79 "2003-09-29T14:38:44Z")
Damn - I missed that it was noted on the 1st page. It is a terrible thing, when I neglect my Survivor gossip! ---
**Author:** ![minty\_green](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@minty\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minty_green)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-9-25/203717/80 "2003-09-29T16:02:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Little Nemo \* > But the bottom line is that regardless of pre-show intentions or on-show actions, the way people are portrayed is 90% a matter of post-show editing. There are hundreds of hours of footage taken of each player during the course of the game but only a few minutes will be shown on camera. How, then, do you explain all those post-boot interviews in which teh contestants _confirm_ that the portraits of their fellow players correspond relatively well with the actual persons? Ryan S., for instance, has confirmed that Osten really was a big time whiner. Maybe part of that is sour grapes since he just got booted, but it’s certainly not made up out of whole cloth. In Africa, Clarence was not shown to be lazy, but it was quite clear from his tribemates that they were pissed that he helped himself to the team’s food early in the game. And you can’t complain that _that_ was editing–the guy really did take the extra beans and cherries. In Marquesas, Sean was shown to be a lazy jerk. Post-boot interviews confirmed that he was a lazy jerk. For example, here’s David B’s recap of [Hunter’s Early Show interview](http://www.realitynewsonline.com/cgi-bin/ae.pl?mode=1&article=article1688.art&page=1). I’d also refer you to [this RNO article](http://www.realitynewsonline.com/cgi-bin/ae.pl?mode=1&article=article1862.art&page=1) on Sean and race, which makes a strong argument that the guy was indeed a lazy jerk. Editing can emphasize a contestant’s character traits, or it can hide a character trait, but it can’t show something that isn’t there. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-9-25/203717.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-9-25/203717.md?page=5)