early show cast reveal

Survivor:  Cook Islands Early Show  Promo VoiceOver 
Date:  Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Transcript by SurvivorFever.net 

Harry Smith:  In just a couple of weeks the new season of Survivor takes 20 castaways to the Cook Islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.   They will be split into 4 tribes.  How they will do that is guaranteed to be a talking point.   For 12 seasons the show has stranded Americans in exotic locations and split contestants into opposing tribes. (Jenn, your tribe Tuegan?) They've been separated by sex...(We have a tribe of women versus a tribe of men.) and by age...(Everybody following a leading younger women.) and at times by a bit of schoolyard diplomacy as contestants chose sides on their own.   For season 13 of Survivor, producers have yet another controversial way to begin the game.   Twenty people, four tribes, each divided by race.

Jonathan Penner (White-American contestant):  I thought it was very gutsy but, it´s gonna be very inetresting, but I think it's potentially very dangerous.

Rebecca Borman (African-American contestant):  It's hard enough out here to just survive.  And to bring the race issue into it just makes it that much harder. 

Harry Smith:   The cast of Survivor: Cook Islands, beginning with the Asian-American tribe are:  Anh-Tuan "Cao Boi" Bui, Becky Lee, Brad Virata, Jenny Guzon-Bae and Yul Kwon. 

The African-American tribe is:  Rebecca Borman, Sekou Bunch, Stephannie Favor, Nathan Gonzales, and Sundra Oakley.

Those on the White tribe are:  Jessica Smith, Adam Gentry, Pavarti Shallow, Jonathan Penner, and Candice Woodcock.

The Hispanic tribe is:  Billy Garcia, Cecilia Mansilla, Oscar "Ozzy" Lusth, Cristina Coria and J.P. Calderon. 

Harry Smith:   And Jeff Probst is back as host of Survivor: Cook Islands.  Good morning, Jeff.

Jeff:  Good morning, Harry.

Harry Smith:   I have to tell you when I woke up early this morning and started reading through this stuff I was stunned and quite frankly I was dismayed. 

Jeff:  Hmmm.

Harry Smith:   I don't know from where I sit that this sounds like a good idea for a reality show.

Jeff:  Well, that's probably one of the reasons it will be interesting and controversial as you say.  I know from where I sit I find it and found it to be one of the freshest ideas we've had going back to the beginning of this show in Season One.

Harry Smith:  I have to tell you, this morning as we were preparing for this segment, just among people that were standing around having coffee and getting prepared for the show, there were groans.  There were feelings of "this has gone too far."   Is this some sort of a stunt just to draw attention and is this a good idea?  Defend the idea.  Is it a good idea?

Jeff:  You know, at first glance, I think when you just hear the idea, it could sound like a stunt.  And especially with the way reality has gone, it wouldn't be unusual.  But that's not what we're doing here.  The idea for this actually came from the criticism that Survivor was not ethnically diverse enough.  For whatever reason we've always had a low number of minority applicants apply to the show.  So we set out and said, "Let's turn this criticism into creativity for the show."   I think it fits in perfectly with what Survivor does, which is, it is a social experiment.  This is adding another layer to that experiment which is taking the show to a completely different level. 

Harry Smith:  What was the reaction...certainly we'll see this play out in the weeks to come.  But as much as you can tell us, what was the reaction to the players when you told them, "Okay, we're dividing into race"?

Jeff:  The reaction from the players on the show was mixed.   Yul wasn't sure.  He thought, "are you guys going to turn this into...", as you were saying Harry, Yul was concerned that we would turn this into something that would show stereotypes and reinforce them.  On the other hand, you had people like Rebecca who said, "I don't really care how you divide it because I know that I need a certain amount of people to be on my side to help me get through this and ultimately to win this game.   You're voting people out that are then on the jury that have to come back to vote on you.  So the person who wins is going to do the best job of merging with all different ethnicities. 

Harry Smith:   I guess the thing that I thought about, when we watch Survivor we take sides.  When we like certain people we like certain tribes.  The audience will divide itself.  Wasn't there some thought that the audience is going to divide itself according to its own ethnic group.

Jeff:  I think that's very likely.  In fact, our original idea was to have the most ethnically diverse group of people on TV.  It wasn't until we got to casting and started noticing this theme of ethnic pride that you're alluding to.  We started thinking, "wow if culture is still playing such a big part in these people's lives, that's our idea, let's divide them based on ethnicity."  I think it's very natural to assume that certain groups are going to have audience members rooting for them simply because they share ethnicity.  At the end of the day, I think it will come down to what it always comes down to, who do I like. 

Harry Smith:   Jeff Probst, thank you for your time.  We'll be looking for the premiere of Survivor: Cook Islands, September 14th on CBS.