CBS executives questioned about racism, inclusion issues in Survivor

While the primary focus of racism and lack of inclusion at CBS has been with Big Brother, executives were also questioned about such issues within Survivor at the TCA.

When I first read about Julia Carter’s blog about her troubled early days playing Survivor: Edge of Extinction, I was shocked to learn that racist slurs towards black people in casual pop culture-focused references were made multiple times on the Kama beach and did not make it to air. The show has addressed its players using racial slurs or coded language such as “ghetto” many times in the past.

Racism and how people of color are portrayed on reality television was a topic of discussion at the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour this past week, as Reality Blurred’s Andy Dehnart asked CBS Entertainment president Kelly Kahl and VP Thom Sherman about racist incidents that occurred during Big Brother and Survivor this past year.

Big Brother was primarily addressed due to the pervasiveness and its ongoing status on CBS television, but when asked about racism and inclusion issues on Survivor, Kahl discussed how producers undergo unconscious bias training before undergoing their tasks. “I think the vast majority of people who come off the shows are very happy with the way that they’re represented. Most people who’ve been on those shows have a—speak very fondly of their experience.

“So, I’m not sure we can always edit the show—in the cases of all these shows, there are thousands of hours that are condensed down to 42 minutes per episode, and we’re simply not able to show every single thing that happens on the show. We strive—and the producers strive—to show a good representation of what happens, and I think they do a good job of that. Like I said, I think most participants on these shows come off and come away having a very, very good experience.”

Effectively, because the majority of people who compete on Survivor come away with a net positive experience, it’s okay if they hide some of the most undesirable content facing persons of color, even if they involve racism. You can’t fit everything into a 42-minute episode each week, so acts of racist behavior have to hit the cutting room floor because the net positives outweigh their experience.

I’ve discussed it many times before, but because of the nature of Edge of Extinction taking up so much episode time, a lot of content had to be stuffed within the hour to make sure we get as best a picture possible. From a logistics perspective, Survivor screwed itself on this aspect because Julia would later be involved in one of the most epic Tribal Councils in history, painting just one side of the picture to her story.

Whether it was a lack of time budgeting or part of ongoing addressing of its shortcomings, I look forward to seeing how this unconscious bias training will address further culture issues within Survivor. We saw how well Davie Rickenbacker’s story of being a “blerd” (black nerd) finding his way through the game added to David vs. Goliath’s narrative; let’s hope to see different perspectives going forward.