Survivor Cook Islands' four tribes are separated by race

As rumored, the 20 cast members on Survivor Cook Islands are divided into tribes by their race. The tribes consist of white people, African-Americans, Asian-Americans, and Hispanic people, and were divided that way because of past criticism that the show was too white, according to host Jeff Probst.

Probst appeared on The Early Show and said, "The idea for this actually came from the criticism that Survivor was not ethnically diverse enough, because for whatever reason, we always have a low number of minority applicants apply to the show. So we set out and said, let's turn this criticism into creative for the show. And I think it fits in perfectly with what Survivor does, which is, it is a social experiment, and this is adding another layer to that experiment which is taking the show to a completely different level."

Later, he said, "Our original idea was simply to have the most ethnically diverse group of people on TV. It wasn't until we got to casting and started noticing this theme of ethnic pride that you're alluding to that we started thinking, wow, if culture is still playing such a big part in these people's lives, that's our idea. Let's divide them based on ethnicity. So, yes, I think it's very natural to assume that certain groups are going to have audience members rooting for them simply because they share ethnicity."

	New 'Survivor' Divides Groups by Race	Associated Press	Wed Aug 23	59
	Tribes for Next Survivor Season To Be Based on Race	eonline.com	Thu Aug 24	0
	New `Survivor' to Divide Tribes by Race	Associated Press	Wed Aug 23	2
	New 'Survivor' Divides Groups by Race	The Washington Post	Thu Aug 24	0