Survivor glossing over its sexual harassment controversy isn’t just astonishing, it’s downright insulting

Variety

Watching this week's episode, "you’d never know that the show’s currently muscling its way through one of the biggest, ugliest controversies of its 20-year run," says Caroline Framke, noting that the CBS reality show seemed to quickly move on from last week's Dan Spilo inappropriate touching controversy. It was, says Framke, "a baffling display of the show’s inability to grasp the gravity of what happened on its watch." Framke adds: "On Survivor and in the 'real world' alike, talking about and addressing sexual harassment is vital, but it’s far from 'the most important thing.' It’s the bare minimum, and it’s frankly ridiculous that (Jeff) Probst and the producers expect accolades for doing it. The most important thing would be acknowledging the truth of the situation, and better yet, actually doing something about it. Botching this so badly is a wildly disappointing black mark on a show that has made a lot of noise in recent years about being progressive, and no amount of ignoring it in the weeks to come will change that."