Can you believe that Survivor has already been on for 16 seasons? Jeff Probst can't, especially since it's taken him nearly that long to win an Emmy for his work as host. But if the ratings year's award ceremonies featuring the reality-television stars are any indication, viewer interest in watching contestants eat bugs and create alliances is waning.
Though Survivor is still #1 in its time slot on CBS Thursdays, viewership has decreased over 50%, and with the economy being what it is, there is little chance that advertisers will be willing to invest the big money they used to.
"After eight years, you’ve got to wonder what’s left to come up with,” said David C. Joyce, a media equity analyst at Miller Tabak & Company who follows CBS."
Is the decline in Survivor interest a sign of the upcoming hard times ahead? Will the new Depression really be heralded in by the dearth of reality television as the ubiquitous canary in a coalmine?
The pop culture end of days is upon us! Repent, and check out three other recent examples of penny-pinching in pop, after the jump:
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When you're a live TV show, it can sometimes be hard to keep potential indecencies off the air. Like when Jane Fonda goes on the Today show and says "cunt."
But if you're a taped TV show, you go through rounds and rounds of editing before a final product is considered ready for the small screen. It might be assumed, then, that after editors and producers watched a clip for the umpteenth time, they would've caught anything that would set off the censors. But not on Survivor: Gabon, the CBS reality series' 17th season, which is the setting for the hottest inter-orientation romance between a gay guy (Charlie Herschel) and a straight guy (Marcus Lehman).
And it's Marcus who managed to slip past the censors when, like Janet Jackson, he experienced a wardrobe malfunction when his penis slipped out of his boxer shorts during a run on the show's first episode. And then it went on TV. And, of course, that's upset the screaming queens at the Parents Television Council, who, of course, have filed an indecency complaint, claiming the manhood exhibition was not just "shocking" but also "purposeful." Idiots.
But by now, you're already dying to see the dick slip, if you haven't spotted it on the Internet already. So here it is, NSFW, below. (Did we mention this is the first season of Survivor broadcast in HD? Uh huh.) CONTINUED »
Wasn't Surivor host Jeff Probst supposed to leave the show, like, years ago? Well, he's not. Leading up to Sunday's big finale of four gals, Probst, who just signed on for another four years, takes some time to reflect about dangling a million dollars in front of men and women who will eat bat meat for the chance. CONTINUED »
• The Donald loves disgraced Miss USA Tara Connor for one reason alone: the press.
• Denver Nugget Carmelo Anthony and six others suspended for multiple games after creating this brilliant display of sportsmanship.
• The YouTube guys sold their company to Google and all they got was this lousy article in Time.
• Judith Regan's camp promises an all out "war" on everything you hold sacred. Like News Corp.
• Copyright infringement is less fun when computers are doing all the work.
• Joy Behar, that silly liberal.
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What's a little military coup going to do when facing off against reality behemoth Survivor? Nothing, says CBS. When military leaders ousted the prime minister and his government, the first thing on many reporters minds may have been whether citizens would be caught in a nationwide slaughter and held captive by their new government. But the Associated Press? Those cats had more important issues on their minds: your primetime viewing schedule.
CBS is filming another edition of its popular game on an island in Fiji, where a military ruler led a coup against the country's elected government. Most of the action was confined to the nation's capital, Suva.
CBS has pulled some production staff out of Suva and, except for some minor issues with travel and delivery of supplies, the show has not been affected, said CBS entertainment spokesman Chris Ender.
"Our producers on location have been assured by the Fiji military that we are safe on the remote island where we are filming and that our cast and crew will be permitted to leave the country safely when the show wraps production," he said.
Or they'll be forced to spend a night on Exile Island, looking for the immunity idol, and pulling hermit crabs out of their shells for food.
You know how we made a big hub-bub over Survivor: Racism? Well, AP is calling the whole stink "worthless." And why was it worthless? Oh, we don't know. Maybe because after two episodes, the powers that be over at CBS decided that racism is bad. (They obviously weren't looking to Lost when when they decided to strand a bunch of folks on an island together.)
Because after only two episodes, producers merged the black, white, Asian and Latino tribes into two mixed-race gangs on the CBS reality show Thursday night. No explanation was given for the quick abandonment of segregation; it seemed to pass by so quickly as to mean nothing.
Ok, cool. End of racism on Cook Island. Yay! But, while some mainstream outlets may call all the fuss "worthless" may we suggest using the term "effective?"
Corporate Heavyweight General Motor announced that they will not be advertising on CBS' "hit" reality show Survivor this year. But, they want to be clear, their decision has nothing to do with the fact that Survivor has decided to break this season's teams apart by race.
And while we don't know exactly why they pulled their ad dollars (New York Times' famous exact words: "whatever the reason") we know that it has nothing to do with them being anti-racism. And something to do with the difficulty of product placement.
Both General Motors and CBS said yesterday that G.M.’s decision to stop advertising on “Survivor” was made three months ago and was unrelated to the show’s race-based format.
A spokesperson for GM explains,
"We like to integrate the product more into the storyline and become more of a character in the storyline.”
So, again, just so we're clear: GM is totally and completely fine with CBS' decision to split up teams by race and enforce televised segregation for the purpose of attracting fascinated viewers. They're just having a hard time working in the product placement of trucks and cars into a show based on being stranded on a racist island.
G.M. Drops ‘Survivor’ but Says Racial Format Isn’t the Reason [Stuart Elliott, Edward Wyatt]
• The great racially undivided city of New York (please, people, try to understand the sarc on this one) does not appreciate Survivor: Racism very much. [AP]
• The New York Times loses a freelancer to the Boston Globe. Which is sad. But we are mostly linking to this story because of the horrid use of "culturati" and the mention of travel expense scandals. [Artnet]
• Martha Stewart may have finally found a (legal) buyer for her Turkey Hill home. [FBNY]
• Despite dropping ad numbers, Conde Nast is supporting Jane all the way. Plus, that Christina Aguilera cover is totally sure to save them. [WWD]
• Tara Reid wins the quote of the week award with this winner: "When you're nice, I don't hate you guys, because you're nice." The paparazzi love you, too Tara. [TMZ]
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