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GM Drives Away from "Survivor"
It could be considered quite serendipitous that General Motors decided to pull its sponsorship of Survivor three months ago, considering it saves the company from having to decide whether to lend its all-American brand to a show that's hosting a racially segregated competition this fall.
But the world's largest automaker happened to wait until Wednesday to explain why it wouldn't be rejoining the CBS series for its 13th season, prompting the suspicion that one of the oldest car manufacturers in the U.S. wasn't too pleased about the idea of tribes composed solely of black, Asian, Hispanic or white contestants battling it out for immunity on the upcoming Survivor: Cook Islands.
"I think it's just a coincidence," GM spokeswoman Ryndee Carney told the Associated Press. "I know it's not cause and effect."
She told Television Week magazine, which first reported the story, that GM has had "a great relationship with the show," adding that Survivor simply no longer fit into the company's current marketing strategy, which is to focus more on product placement and big-ticket live events, like sporting competitions and award shows.
"There's a limited number of possibilities as to how you can integrate a car or truck" on a show in which people spend all their time on an island, Carney said.
Unlike during previous seasons, when the Suburbans and Cadillacs were just zooming by? GM has been the CBS reality series' only automotive sponsor since the show's inception in 2000.
CBS confirmed that GM told the network that it was pulling its Survivor sponsorship long before this season's twist was announced.
"They notified us several months ago, well before the plans for the upcoming format were put into motion," CBS spokesman Chris Ender told E! Online. "GM had no knowledge of [this season's] ethnic format." Ender said that the upcoming season has a "full roster of advertisers," but he did not say what company, if any, would be providing Survivor with its vroom-vroom from now on.
Spokespeople for Ford and Toyota told reporters that they had no plans to take GM's place, while Honda said it doesn't comment on advertising strategies. Dodge, Chrysler and Jeep were all approached but turned the opportunity down.
New York City politicians protested outside CBS headquarters Tuesday, demanding that the network either drop this season of Survivor from its schedule or put a lid on the overriding concept, which apparently was devised by creator Mark Burnett.
The reality TV pioneer defended his position in a conference call with reporters Tuesday, saying that, "by putting people in tribes, they clearly have to get rid of people of their own ethnicity. So it's not racial at all."
New York City Council members and civil rights groups, however, are concerned that the racially separated tribes will promote divisiveness among both competitors and viewers. CBS, which has expressed confidence in Burnett's judgment and creative process, said that it is moving ahead with the season Sept. 14, as scheduled.
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