You can’t blame the producers of “Survivor,” now in its sixth incarnation, for wanting to stir things up and add some new gimmicks to attract viewers. The reality show has become more predictable with each run. This time around—besides choosing the Amazon, a truly challenging setting—the creators came up with two other ways to get our attention: first, the two teams are divided by gender, and see-ond, one of the participants on the female team is deaf.

Even if the reality of the setting is questionable, this is a new TV situation for a person with a disability. In my youth, we had Raymond Burr as the wheelchair-user, and James Franciscus as the blind investigator, “Longstreet.” They have been followed by a string of other able-bodied actors portraying characters with disabilities. Only relatively recently have they been joined by actors with disabilities portraying characters with disabilities, including: Chris Burke in “Life Goes On,” Daryl “Chill” Mitchell in “Ed,” and Marlee Matlin in “West Wing” and other shows. But now we have a person with a disability “playing” herself in a semi-realistic situation. How will she fare? How will her “real-life” companions react to her?

Battle of the Sexes

For starters, host Jeff Probst told a gratuitous story about how the female Amazon warriors had been the ones to conquer the wild river area where this game is set. This tale made the women whoop and the men roll their eyes.

Entertainment-wise, the male/female team division has really brought out the worst in the otherwise typically attention-starved contestants. And, unless the editing was skewed, the men were making more derogatory comments about the women than the reverse.

The men are sure they are a shoo-in, because they feel the women are merely “eye candy” and do not have the mental or physical strength they do. The women will starve because they don’t have any ace fishermen any camp. Other comments called the female competitors the “estrogen camp” and made some reference to “The Vagina Monologues” that would be going on there. Then there was the Magic 8 Ball, a “luxury” item brought by one guy, used to ask adolescent questions about the likelihood of certain guys getting together with the “hot” women on the other team. The men can’t decide if they are attracted to the women or consider them a joke—maybe their gut answer is both.

Predictably, the girls called the guys “cocky,” but the observations they shared seemed just slightly more reflective than the men’s. One woman said that the absence of the men was a nightmare for her, because women are much easier to manipulate than the other women. Otherwise, not a lot of verbal fodder from the women.

“I’m Deaf”

No sooner had the women landed ashore at their new camp, than Christy Smith made her self-admitted awkwardly-timed disclosure that she is deaf. She then made her polite request that her teammates take some care (making eye contact and slowing down) when speaking so that she could read lips.

Her admission brought immediate grumbling, in asides to the camera, from some of the tribe who were worried how she would work out if communication were a problem. The issue was dramatically brought home when darkness set in; Christy was unable to participate in the fireside discussion and went to bed early in frustration. This was seen as a solitary and troublesome act by the rest.

The next morning was no better. As the group dispersed from camp to get things done, not one hearing person took the time to bring Christy up to speed. Selective editing or rude behavior caught on camera? She seemed used to the situation—in a “poor me” sort of way—and was unrealistically upset when it was her turn to sit out. Surprise, “Survivor”?! It is, after all, a type of humanitarian regard had she expected from the start of people who try out for “Survivor”? It is, after all, a group of shallow folks, all of whom are out for themselves and the $1 million prize.

Throughout the rest of the premiere episode, the deafness issue was mentioned again. However, I was still watching for signs of it. At the start of the physical challenge, Probst gave rather elaborate instructions to both teams. The camera shot of Christy showed full standing on her back. Were unseen accommodations being made or did the host simply take the time to speak in a manner that lent itself to lipreading? During the obstacle course challenge, Christy was an active participant on her winning team and she is deaf. She then made her polite request that her teammates take some care (making eye contact and slowing down) when speaking so that she could read lips.

Outcome

As the he-men lost the challenge, they were the ones to vote a member off their team at the drama that is the Tribal Council. But what if the women had lost? Would Christy have been the first to go because her deafness was considered a liability? Or would she have been spared as a politically correct team? In time, her teammates start to see her as a person or continue to see her as a person?

Follow Up

Week 2: The first challenge of this show involved blindfolding all but one of each tribe. The sighted player had to direct those with blindfolds through some tasks. As the women now had one more player than the men, they had to sit someone out. Surprise, it was Christy—but it was unclear if she bowed out or was edged out. Realistically, the only role she could have filled was that of the sighted “director” of others.

Back at camp, Christy asked Jeanne to fill her in each day on the nighttime conversations she was missing. The night before, the extremely religious contestant (mandatory: one per show), Joanna, was freaked out about having the immunity “idol” in the camp. Jeanne warned Christy about this and Christy responded that such a worry was stupid. Joanna overheard and a fight ensued. Christy spouted that such a no-good sure enemy and Joanna’s anger was not based on Christy’s disability.

Then the women lost the immunity challenge. Before they headed to Tribal Council, Christy exhibited what seemed to be a newfound desire to finish the women’s shelter. It appeared she expected the others to march to her drummer and jump in to work with her. The others took issue with this. When someone finally did drop what she was doing and pitch in, Christy decided she now wanted to go fishing. Related aside to the camera: “If Christy gets voted off it’ll be due to her personality or attitude, not her handicap or disability.” The truth or a pseudo-PC cover-up?

At Tribal Council, after the shelter squabble was rehashed, Probst singled Christy out and asked if she felt excluded. She said she did and told Probst it was solely based on her deafness. I wonder. At any rate, she escaped the axe this week.

Week 3: There were, to me, no overt or covert signs of the deafness issue. Perhaps it has become a nonissue that the women have adapted to—plus, they have bigger worries as their camp is still not really in order. Another possibility is that the disability has been displaced by raging hormones. A challenge that brought the men and women together almost socially had the dynamic of a junior high dance.

The Future

It appears that the person most concerned about her deafness is Christy. Part of her personality seems auto- matically and constantly de- fensive about being slighted, even when the “slights” come from a reaction to her person- ality, not her disability. In order to seriously be a trailblazer, she should stop being her own worst enemy.

For the others, there are more pressing concerns. While Christy was whining that her contemporaries, the three “hot” young women from her tribe, were excluding her from an activity, the sex goddesses themselves were scheming about how they would go topless—solely as a distrac- tion—when they merge with the male tribe. So, any truly valuable lessons about a person with a disability fitting in are being diluted by battle strategies involving the use of sexual tension and angst re- volving around gender issues.

Tune in (Thursday at 7:00 p.m. Central on CBS) and see für yourself. ■

Cameron Oakes is, against her better judgment, a “Survivor” addict whose father used to work with the deaf. As a freelance writer based in Mpls., she combined these two factors to write this piece.