'Survivor' ends segregation game

By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television WriterFri Sep 29, 5:11 PM ET

All the hubbub about the "Survivor" ethnic experiment turned out to be pretty worthless.

Why? Because after only two episodes, producers merged the black, white, Asian and Latino tribes into two mixed-race gangs on the CBS reality show Thursday night. No explanation was given for the quick abandonment of segregation; it seemed to pass by so quickly as to mean nothing.

"We're back to America. We're a melting pot," said Parvati, a boxer on the new Raro tribe. "I love it."

The two new tribes competed in a grueling challenge that seemed better designed to get prisoners of war to talk. Each person strapped on a 15 pound weight, and trudged through knee-deep water around a course, with one tribe trying to catch the other. For any person who dropped out, a teammate had to carry their weight.

The Raro tribe won. For the losing Aitus, it meant more politicking than a brokered convention. No one knew or trusted each other much, so they had to feel their way into alliances.

The result was to send Cecilia packing in a 5-3 vote.

Oh, and remember last week's reject, Billy, talking about how he made a love-at-first-sight connection with another player, Candice?

She thought he was nuts, too.

The race-based angle to this season's show had brought a firestorm of criticism down on the show and CBS Corp. Several major advertisers pulled out.