Cast of Survivor Are Just Actors

Here's some truly shocking news. The most recent castoff from Survivor claims that "one-third of the castaways are actually professional models who are appearing on the show after being cast through their agencies." I'm devestated. How could they do such a thing? Although I stopped watching Survivor two years ago because it got too boring, I still regarded it as a single shining beacon of truth and honesty in this otherwise corrupt world. Now I have nothing left to believe in.

Entertainment

Posted on Thu Feb 24, 2005



Comments

Doesn't surprise me at least

If you bring in members of the public you can't guarentee they'll be entertaining. I think they're all actors.

Personally I avoid 'Reality TV' like the plague
I'm just waiting for the time they go too far and someone dies, going to happen sooner or later.
Posted by Sharruma  on  Thu Feb 24, 2005  at  05:25 PM
Man, next somebody'll be saying that buying a new car doesn't really make you a babe magnet like on TV. What's the world coming to?
Posted by Big Gary C  on  Thu Feb 24, 2005  at  05:33 PM
Oh, great. Now they'll say that the winner of the first season's show, Richard Hatch, was never really naked, and he has a big blue dot for genetalia. Is nothing acrid?
Posted by Hairy Houdini  on  Thu Feb 24, 2005  at  06:04 PM
And in a similar vein, on a recent episode of "The Simple Life," the two bimbos got a "job" at a New Jersey funeral home. During the show, they were apparently shown spilling human remains on the floor and cleaning it up with a Dustbuster. Ah, the hilarity in desecrating someone's loved one!

Anyway, after people complained about it, the show's producers revealed that the whole thing was staged. Goll-ee!

I also happen to have on my computer a PDF file of a script for Queer Eye For The Straight Guy, another alleged "unscripted" "reality" show. It's many pages long and outlines things the boys might want to consider doing during the show and suggests directions to take the episode in. Fake, fake, fake, just like the rest of America in 2005.

Meanwhile, my local Fox affiliate seems to have decided that the Iraq war isn't worthy of coverage on their 10 PM news show. Cuts into the time available for their cross-promotional mentions of "American Idol," you understand.
Posted by Cranky Media Guy  on  Thu Feb 24, 2005  at  07:22 PM
I'd be surprised to learn that seven members of the cast really were pulled and replaced, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn that a large percentage are actors. Of the tens of thousands of wanna-be actors, only a tiny fraction make it beyond a few commercials ... so every aspiring actor with an ounce of common sense is sending portfolios and headshots to Survivor. If they just make it as part of the group they'll get more exposure than most of their peers ever would. As far as them being hot... please... if there were no hotties there'd be no show.
Posted by Neal  on  Thu Feb 24, 2005  at  08:33 PM
Poor Alex! Losing one's illusions is hard. I hope you didn't think WWF wasn't staged, too!
Posted by cvirtue  on  Fri Feb 25, 2005  at  06:30 AM
A couple of years ago there was an interesting article in the New Yorker Magazine, where the author attempted to to try out for one of the shows, he was suprised to find the casting room full of actors and models all seeking air time to, as he put it, "get their face out there"
There seems to be a blurring of the word "reality" these days...
Posted by padego  on  Fri Feb 25, 2005  at  08:46 AM
Well, after showing 10-12 hours a day of Michael Jackson and (previously) Scott Peterson trial coverage there's barely any time left to cover international conflicts. I mean, geez, Media Guy, what do you expect from them??
Posted by brian  on  Fri Feb 25, 2005  at  10:08 AM
And what do you think about the winner of Project Runway? Jay's collection was good, but Kara Saun really could make that leather and sequen work for her. Personally, I think both her and Austin Scarlett got robbed... I think it was staged.

Not that a heterosexual man like myself would ever watch a fashion reality show... I just heard about it from other people.
Posted by Brian  on  Fri Feb 25, 2005  at  10:13 AM
Great. Now I suppose people get paid to make ammetuer porn too.
Posted by Matt  on  Fri Feb 25, 2005  at  10:33 AM
During the first season of "Survivor," I remember seeing a column headline that sums it all up: "If this is reality, where are all the ugly people?"
Posted by Big Gary C  on  Fri Feb 25, 2005  at  05:04 PM
"Just actors"? Just? That's a mean thing to say. Actors aren't worth less than everyday people such as ourselves. They have a lot to offer human society, and they also have a lot to offer hippo society, because they are nutritious. Elsewhere on this website we have learned that hippos enjoy eating dwarves, and actors belong to the same profession as circus performers. How long before the cast of Survivor are eaten?
Posted by Ashley Pomeroy  on  Sat Feb 26, 2005  at  09:02 AM
Wasn't there a scandal in the first or second season of Survivor where it was revealed that a large part of the show was scripted? I remember something about it in the new but didn't pay attention. The Jaywalking segment in the Tonight Show is a much better reality show. And, yes, I realize that the smart people are not shown when the segment is run.

A comment about actors I heard perhaps twenty or twenty five years ago was something along the lines of: "Actors can't do anything intelligent without a writer giving them a script." The conversation was about writing and I had mentioned that I was trying to be a writer and one of the people in the group was from Hollywood and made the comment. At least if my memory is right. (Seems I'm saying that a lot today.)
Posted by Christopher Cole  on  Sat Feb 26, 2005  at  09:16 AM
So, what category does Anna Nichole's show fall into? I'm guessing hippo fodder. Poor hippo.
Posted by Chadds Ford Prefect  on  Sat Feb 26, 2005  at  10:24 AM
I think the hippo would be in greater danger than Ms. Smith
Posted by JoeSixpack  on  Sat Feb 26, 2005  at  10:34 AM
I might actually watch that show if, at the end of each episode, the loser was eaten by hippo instead of just being "voted off the island."
Posted by Big Gary C  on  Sat Feb 26, 2005  at  11:51 AM
I'd like to see the producers eaten by hippos.
Posted by JoeSixpack  on  Sat Feb 26, 2005  at  11:57 AM
I'm just curious what was happening about 10-15 years ago that made a bunch of shows last. Seinfeld, Friends, Er, NYPD Blue, Frasier...? I mean they all started w/i a few years of each other & they all went past the 10 yr mark. What was it about the show, or the time that made them so popular? When the shows first began airing, I would have been a kid...in bed by 9 maybe? But I watch them now...(well, did)...so what's different now that a sitcom/drama is not lasting, but 'reality' t.v. is?
Posted by Maegan  on  Sun Feb 27, 2005  at  05:41 AM
Reality tv is cheaper to make.
Posted by The Curator  in  San Diego  on  Sun Feb 27, 2005  at  09:32 AM
I always forget about the money. It's not like they don't have enough. Although, I heard a few shows got really expensive to make...They were spending more than they were able to bring in...Dark Angel maybe?? It was only on for 2 seasons I believe.

...Don't reality contestants get a lot of money if they win, though? Or is that a payout of $100 over 10,000 years?
Posted by Maegan  on  Sun Feb 27, 2005  at  11:23 AM
First ooff are Actors not people too? some one posted that actors auditioning for the show shows its not a reality show. actors are people and will react to situations the same as normal people, while there are faked moments inr eality tv jsut because a personis an actor doesnt mean everyhting they do is fake if the take a dum is that not real? lollo and in rsponse to :

Doesn't surprise me at least

If you bring in members of the public you can't guarentee they'll be entertaining. I think they're all actors.

Personally I avoid 'Reality TV' like the plague
I'm just waiting for the time they go too far and someone dies, going to happen sooner or later.
Posted by Sharruma on Thu Feb 24, 2005 at 04:25 PM

ITs already happened jsut not piublicized
Posted by t  on  Sun Feb 27, 2005  at  04:28 PM
Really?? Do you have footage? Can we vote on the best death scene by sending you a text message?!
Posted by Maegan  on  Mon Feb 28, 2005  at  05:39 AM
A $1 million payout at the end of a season plus regular overhead (Contender was the most expensive reality show this time last year at $2 million an episode) is still far less than a single season of Friends which cost $6 million an episode just to pay the six "stars". Add to that regular overhead (I'm guessing $1 or $2 mill) and you can see how "reality" shows are much more appealing to network assholes.

As long as people are willing to be entertained by crap, crap is what they will be offered. Especially if it's cheap!
Posted by Charybdis  on  Mon Feb 28, 2005  at  11:24 AM
Well, I haven
Posted by feliz  on  Sat Jun 19, 2010  at  12:11 PM
Survivor is really real!!!!! If you say its fake well then BLEEP!!!!!!!
Posted by Gordan  on  Tue Jan 11, 2011  at  07:12 PM
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