Survivor: Age Takes Atoll

By James Poniewozik

If you were dumped on a desert island with few supplies and 15 contentious comrades, a few questions would present themselves. Are you a people person? Would you eat rats? Could you start a fire with your eyeglasses? But the ultimate question would be, Are you in the demo?

The demo, or demographic, is the elite consumer group, 18 to 49 years old--or better, 18 to 34--that advertisers pay most to reach. (The oft-disputed reasoning is that older people have set spending habits and, because they watch more TV than young'uns, are better reached with ads on cheaper programs.) Last week CBS's gross, engrossing adventure game show Survivor (Wednesdays, 8 p.m. E.T.) was a phenom for many reasons: it had America buzzing, and it took a piece out of ABC's hit Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. But, above all, it showed that the generation gap is alive and well, in society and in the TV biz.

During 13 episodes, the 16 contestants marooned on the island of Pulau Tiga will vote to remove members until the last one wins a million bucks. What makes this fascinatingly different from MTV's The Real World--besides the vermin and the cash--is that although Survivor cast all ages, only three of the 16 were outside the 18-to-49 demo. It was like a dotcom company: the seniors were demographic and cultural outsiders. As the hotties showed off their abs and pierced nipples, ex-Navy SEAL Rudy Boesch, 72, groused about the kids who wouldn't accept military discipline. "I've got to fit in, not them," he admitted. "There's more of them than there is of me." All the stereotypes came into play: the young are lazy, the old intransigent.

Back in the States, the ratings irony was delicious. CBS, which attracts relatively few 18-to-49s, has long decried advertisers' focus on demographics rather than overall viewers. Unfair! Ageist! Fifty-year-olds buy stuff too! Then CBS merged with MTV's parent, Viacom, and started courting youth (MTV heavily plugged Survivor). Against Survivor, Millionaire drew more viewers. But CBS, which won the 18-to-34 and 18-to-49 viewers dramatically (by 1.5 and 1.4 million, respectively), claimed victory.

Youth claimed victory on the island too. First to go--after she stumbled and lost her team an intraisland contest--was Sonja Christopher, 63, a charming woman who brought a ukulele to the island. Christopher doubts she fell to ageism but says, "At that point, strength and endurance were very important...If I were twentysomething and saw a 63-year-old woman, I probably would assume she'd be the weak link." Judging from the expulsion vote, Boesch might soon follow: Christopher barely edged him out. And (spoiler alert!) though neither contestants nor CBS will say who gets bumped when, the Kansas City Star reported that B.B. Andersen, 64, of Mission Hills, Kans., returned home early in the show's taping.

The moral? On television, at least, seniority means squat. Although sinewy Rudy could probably best all those young pups in hand-to-hand combat, he mourned, "I don't even know what MTV means." Maybe the seals should start teaching that.

--By James Poniewozik