Survivor plays the race card

The 13th season of the reality TV series Survivor - filmed on the island of Aitutaki in the Cook Islands - will start with teams split according to race: Whites, Blacks, Asians and Hispanics.

The host of the CBS show, Jeff Probst, said yesterday that being on the show was a social experiment and this would "add another layer" to the experiment.

"There are going to be people looking for stereotypes: Will this tribe be smarter than this tribe, or will this tribe be faster than this tribe?" Probst told People magazine.

"That's why I think it's fun. But five people in a tribe do not represent an entire ethnic group."

The new series will start screening in the United States on September 14 as the 20 contestants vie for a US$1 million ($1.58 million) prize.

TV3 spokesman Roger Beaumont said no date had been set for showing the series here.

A spokeswoman for a Latino advocacy group, the National Council of La Raza, Lisa Navarrete, said the racial division was irresponsible: "They are willing to engage a pretty hot-button topic for ratings and feel they won't have any problems. "Knowing Survivor, and the way the game is played, it gets very ugly and setting it up that way almost propels people to go there - act negatively toward other races."

CBS acknowledged the format was controversial: "Survivor ... has always answered its critics on the screen," it said.

Cook Islands News editor John Woods said the TV series finished filming at Aitutaki on August 6, and that the islands' Government had indicated it expected a significant boost to tourism from the expected global TV audience of 200 million people. The show used a crew of 250 to 300 people

- NZPA