Fienberg:
"Survivor" producer Mark Burnett has been responsible for more than a few casting decisions that reenforced and reaffirmed certain stereotypes about opinionated African-Americans. Mark Burnett likes drama and one of the ways he's most reliably found to yield good drama is by exploiting and perpetuating racial assumptions. If Burnett had his way, every one of his shows would feature a Phillip or an Omarosa or a NaOnka every season, since he's discovered that African-Americans with opinions make for tremendous villains. You can almost sense his disappointment when an opinionated minority contestant like Francesca either comes across as rational or is eliminated early. Because the diversity on these shows is spotty -- sometimes "Survivor" does a great job with rainbow casting, other times dreadful -- those become the most repeated representations of race on one of the post popular shows on television. But "Big Brother" perpetuates the same stereotype. "America's Next Top Model" thrives on it. And even "American Idol" does it, substituting "diva" for "crazy," where "diva" becomes a pejorative almost always applied to African-American contestants with opinions. So Mark Burnett perpetuates a phenomenon of media representation and then, in the case of tonight's episode, gets a provocative episode of television out of the climate he's stoked.Also, according to Probst: 8 Survivors make it to the final episode. In other words, we'll get a trio challenge at Redemption, and three Immunity Challege/Tribal Councils to get it from 6 down to 3, then Final Tribal? Doesn't leave a lot of time for the March of the Fallen.
