Survivor since 2000: Reliving the game’s greatest moments year by year

Survivor 2006: The first year of casting twists begins in controversy

Survivor Cook Islands proved to the fans that they could trust CBS to handle social experiments with tact. The idea of splitting up the tribes by race to start off gameplay, splitting up Caucasians, Asian-Americans, African-Americans and Latin-American players in tribes of five, was met with incredible backlash, with CBS effectively jumping into their first casting twist head first.

After the first two eliminations, the tribe split up, effectively proving that people were jumping on an idea and labeling it problematic before it even went into play. More importantly, the theme actually lets the casting process diversify, offering up a more open look on race relations in America for better and for worse.

More importantly, Survivor Cook Islands had one of the best all-newbie casts in the show’s history, producing great players such as Ozzy Lusth, Yul Kwon, Johnathan Penner and Parvati Shallow. CBS even followed up the next season with another diverse season, showing that they can both have their thematic cake and eat it, too.