CBS Vows To Begin Casting 50% People Of Color On Shows Like ‘Survivor’ & ‘Big Brother’
Following criticism from past contestants, CBS has recently vowed to begin casting 50% people of color and diversifying their reality shows like ‘Survivor,’ ‘Big Brother,’ ‘Love Island,’ and more.
On Monday (Nov. 9), CBS announced its new diversity pledge to begin casting at least 50 percent Black, indigenous and people of color onto its unscripted shows starting with the 2021-2022 seasons.
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George Cheeks, president and chief executive officer for the CBS Entertainment Group, writes, “The reality TV genre is an area that’s especially underrepresented, and needs to be more inclusive across development, casting, production and all phases of storytelling. As we strive to improve all of these creative aspects, the commitments announced today are important first steps in sourcing new voices to create content and further expanding the diversity in our unscripted programming, as well as on our network.”
As mentioned, the move arrives after past contestants spoke out about the lack of diversity in the long-running show’s casts. This past summer, contestants including Sean Rector (season 4, Survivor: Marquesas) and Jolanda Jones (season 10, Survivor: Palau) started The Black Survivor Alliance group, with a goal of bringing light to our collective experience with implicit bias and racism on and off the show.”
Through the summer, the alliance had several meetings with CBS executives, plus host and executive producer Jeff Probst, regarding the show being more inclusive and equitable.
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