Posted on: Monday, July 9, 2001

Revelations may induce 'reality' TV credibility crisis

Associated Press

NEW YORK — Ever since Tina Wesson won the second million-dollar jackpot in May, "Survivor" seems to have lost the immunity idol.

A nagging sense that all is not how it seems on the hit reality show has followed the news that "Survivor" executive producer Mark Burnett staged some scenes and may have tried to influence the first game's outcome.

Filming is about to begin for the show's third edition in Kenya. "All signs indicate 'Survivor' is just as popular, if not more popular, than when the second edition ended," CBS spokesman Chris Ender said.

But others aren't so sure.

"I think people are a lot more suspicious now," said Tim Gilman, a fan who started the Web site survivornews

.net. "I think people have come to expect that not everything on 'Survivor' is real."

Burnett volunteered the information about staged scenes during a speaking engagement. He said a river-swimming race during the second "Survivor" was later re-enacted with stand-ins so a helicopter crew could get better shots. Neither he nor CBS seem to have any problem with the technique.

"An additional helicopter shot for establishing a scene isn't going to take away any enjoyment from the 'Survivor' experience," Ender said. "They know the challenges are real, they know the emotions are real, they know the outcomes are real."

The court case involving Stacey Stillman is potentially more damaging. Stillman has charged Burnett with rigging her early exit from the first game. Burnett, and other contestants, deny this.

Peter Lance, an author who has written a critical book about "Survivor," said he believed the second edition's popularity "was eroded by the sense that there was manipulation going on." From studying the second edition, Lance has theorized that the show's rules were bent during some of the competitions to ease Texan Colby Donaldson's path to the finals.

The network's internal research indicated viewers enjoyed the second edition more than the first, Ender said, even though many critics and fans like Gilman disagreed.

"The show just seemed a little more, I wouldn't say scripted, but highly controlled, like a movie set," Gilman said. "The more I knew about that, finding out it's not really a documentary where people are interacting with each other, it cheapened the experience.

"On the other hand, I'll keep watching it."