How Survivor failed its contestants. Plus: remembering Pedro Zamora
Dear newsletter friends,
The big story in television this week was Disney+’s launch, but the big story in reality TV this week was a 19.5-year-old broadcast reality show: Survivor.
First, a moment to reflect on what happened 25 years ago Monday: Pedro Zamora died, hours after The Real World San Francisco ended.
In the mid-1990s, Pedro humanized HIV/AIDS by using the platform of the show to educate its young viewers—and he also lived his life and fell in love while on TV.
On the occasion of the anniversary of his death, I curated a list of links about his life and legacy, including a video interview conducted in the house. Read/watch those here.
Survivor’s merge episode and its fallout
The mid-season episode were Survivor tribes merge is usually joyful—and then turns fun, as the game becomes individual and the strategizing ramps up.
What happened during Wednesdays two back-to-back episodes, though, was the opposite of joyful. Read my recap and analysis for a full summary.
What frustrates me the most is that Survivor and CBS let unwanted touching continue to happen. On episode one, Kellee asked Dan to stop touching her. He didn’t. He was allowed to stay on the show and in the game. Why?
I wrote about all this here: Survivor proves ‘there are always consequences for standing up’ in a bleak merge episode
Also: There is clear video and audio evidence of unwanted touching. Yet that still isn’t enough for some viewers to think anything was wrong? I don’t get it.
Yesterday, in the wake of the episode, several contestants issued apologies, and Jeff Probst responded to questions from the usual friendly outlets.
I rounded up those tweets, videos, and interviews here: Survivor fallout: responses from Kellee, Janet, Jamal, Probst; apologies from Aaron, Elizabeth, Missy.
Celebrity Big Brother’s future, Survivor 40’s premiere
In other Survivor news: CBS announced when Survivor season 40 will start, and it’s earlier than usual. Also, I missed this during the summer, but the subtitle for the spring season is apparently “Winners at War.”
CBS’ winter schedule had Undercover Boss and Survivor on it, but one show was missing: Celebrity Big Brother 3.
Looking at the schedule, it seems to me that there will be no Celebrity Big Brother season 3. Is it done? Who knows?
Disney+’s reality TV—and a recommendation
Tuesday’s Disney+ launch included several reality shows, both existing series (from NatGeo and elsewhere) and originals.
I reviewed the show I was most looking forward to: Encore!, which is produced by Kristen Bell and aired a single episode on ABC two years ago.
The show follows people who reunite to perform the same play they did years or decades ago in high school. The second episode drops today, with new episodes every Friday. (I’ve seen the first two.)
More Disney+ reviews coming soon! And other news and interviews that I should go start working on now.
Have a great rest of your Friday!
best,
Andy
🌄 This is Reality in Focus issue 170, first sent 15 November 2019, and it’s never gone to a high school reunion.
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📷 Photo of Gardens by the Bay in Singapore by Victor