For the first time in the history of Survivor, touted as the main purveyor of reality television, two Filipinos are cast in this season, which was shot on the Cook Islands in the heart of the South Pacific.
Brad Virata, a 29-year old fashion
director from Los Angeles and Jenny Guzon-Bae, a 36-year-old real estate agent
from Lake Forest, Illinois are two of the 20 “castaways” who will be fighting
for the million-dollar prize. CBS, where the show is aired, said contestants
“will initially be organized into four tribes divided along ethnic lines —
African-American, Asian-American, Hispanic and White — before merging in a
later episode." The show has been criticized for having predominantly white
cast members in the previous seasons. Jeff Probst, the show’s host, said on a
CBS orning news show that they have always had “low number of minority
applicants [who] apply to the show". According to his bio, Brad Virata was
raised in the small town of Oak Harbor, Washington, just outside of Seattle.
Jenny Guzon-Bae on the other hand, was
born in Chicago and raised in the suburb of Melrose Park, Illinois. She is
described as a “natural tomboy.”
