Jeff Varner and Zeke Smith of Survivor: Game Changers, bonded over their identities as gay men, with Varner even talking about his activism in the queer community. However, their relationship soured when Varner outed Smith at a Trans man during tribal council, to move the vote off himself. Varner said that Smith was capable of deceit because he had not told the tribe he was transgender. All the other castmates immediately came to Smith’s defense and ultimately voted Varner out; but not before shaming him for his decision to out Smith. . .

Survivor has been under attack for their lack of diversity for as long as they’ve been on air. Brandon Chappell, a Black reality TV podcaster and stakeholder in the discussion of representation on Survivor, even said his family and friends of color would tease him for watching reality TV because “reality TV is for white folks” (‘Black Voices of RHAP”). It is understandable that Chappell’s family and friends would feel this way. Lita Brillman's analysis “Race and Gender in the First 30 Seasons of Survivor” reported that 77 percent of contestants on Survivor from 2000 to 2015 were identified as white, and 79.3 percent of Survivor winners identified as white. . .

The Black Survivor Alliance, a collective of Black Survivor castaways, petitioned CBS to change their lack of Black representation on and off camera of the network's hit reality television program. The BSA is a great example of what can happen when viewers take the oppositional position of American white hegemony when individuals decode their media. How can students use reality TV and generative AI to demonstrate their knowledge of Stuart Hall's theory of encoding/decoding?

Against all odds, ice cream scooper and comic book artist, Erik Reichenbach, guaranteed his spot in the final four of “Survivor: Micronesia” after winning individual immunity. The Black Widow Brigade was crushed. The four women; Parvati Shallow, Cirie Fields, Amanda Kimball and Natalie Bolton; were all part of the now-iconic alliance that carried them all the way from the merge to the final five of “Survivor: Micronesia.” Erik Reichenbach winning immunity meant that, for the first time, the women would be sending home one of their own. With darkness looming and tribal council approaching, the women got to work on a plan. . .