‘Survivor’ Viewers Mostly Not Offended by Racial Dividing Line

Only 17 percent of regular viewers of the CBS reality series Survivor are personally offended by the fact that the show is dividing contestants by race, according to a poll from Universal McCann. The new series of the popular show will have four “tribes,” each made up of a different race. In late August, sponsors General Motors, Coca-Cola and others announced that they had pulled their sponsorship of the show. All claimed their decision had nothing to do with the new format.

In the Universal McCann poll, those who identified themselves as African American, Hispanic, Asian or other ethnic group were more likely to be personally offended, at 31 percent, than Caucasian viewers, at 26 percent, writes Mediaweek.

Non-viewers of the show agree, for the most part (72 percent), that the concept could be offensive to some people, but say it isn’t offensive to them. Interestingly, that number was higher for actual viewers of the show, 85 percent of whom agree that the concept may be offensive to others.

In spite of, or perhaps because of, the controversy, nearly 80 percent of regular viewers and 10 percent of non-viewers said they are very or somewhat interested in watching the show. Of those who said they were not interested in watching, only 15 percent said it was because of the division of teams along racial lines.