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2025 marks a banner year for Survivor<\/em>. The show that revolutionized television back in the summer of 2000 has spent a quarter of a century showcasing people from a variety of backgrounds to millions of people, as they fight tooth and nail to vote each other out for the million-dollar prize.<\/p>\n In 2020, in the wake of the “Black Lives Matter” movement and protests around the death of George Floyd<\/strong>, a group of Black Survivor<\/em> alumni formed the “Soul Survivors Organization.” Consisting of castaways across the show’s first 40 seasons, they put out a widely-circulated petition, calling upon the show to institute several anti-racist initiatives, including more diverse talent in front of and behind the camera. CBS responded in kind as, in November 2020, the network announced it would be implementing new rules for its unscripted shows in an effort to further diversity. Specifically, the new initiative<\/a> called for at least 50% of cast for all reality shows to be contestants who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC).<\/p>\n \ud83c\udfac<\/strong> SIGN UP for Parade’s Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox<\/strong><\/a> \ud83c\udfac\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The “diversity initiative,” as it’s been colloquially referred to since then, has been instituted for the past five years of Survivor<\/em>, Big Brother<\/em> and The Amazing Race<\/em>. The new casting directive handily coincided with the “new era” of the island, which began following a mandated filming hiatus due to the pandemic. From Seasons 41 through the recently announced cast of 49, casting director Jesse Tannenbaum<\/strong> and company have followed the initiative put in front of them, bringing a wide variety of stories and backgrounds that many fans say they may not have seen prior to the mandate.<\/p>\n As the year has gone along, however, the status of the diversity initiative has begun to change. Seeking FCC approval for an upcoming merger with Skydance, Paramount co-CEOs George Cheeks<\/strong>, Chris McCarthy<\/strong> and Brian Robbins<\/strong> put forward a memo saying that the company would be making changes to its diversity, equity and inclusion programs. The news prompted fans of CBS reality shows to wonder, without a mandate, how diversity would be handled moving forward. But, even without an initiative, Tannenbaum affirms diversity is still at the forefront of his mind moving forward.<\/p>\n Related: Jeff Probst Says Rules Violation Led to Historic Alternate Situation on \u2018Survivor 49\u2019 (Exclusive)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n “From my perspective, nothing\u2019s changed,” he tells Deadline<\/a><\/em>. The quote comes from a round-up discussion with nominees for this year’s Emmy Award for Outstanding Casting for a Reality Program. He was first nominated for the award last year for The Amazing Race<\/em>.<\/p>\n “I\u2019ve always, in the back of my mind, felt we needed more diversity on these shows,” he continues. “It became a mandate for season 41. It\u2019s really beautiful to see the amount of people who apply in our database when they see someone that looks like them on television. So fast forward to now, Seasons 51 and 52, which we\u2019re currently casting. The pool of people is insane. I\u2019m still shooting for having a really diverse cast because I think everybody needs to be represented.”<\/p>\n When asked about getting nominated for his work on TAR<\/em> for a second year in a row, Tannenbaum says, “Just being nominated for a show that I\u2019ve been watching since it came out in the early 2000s and being a fan of it \u2026 that\u2019s first and foremost. But then also it\u2019s about the contestants, the relationships and the dynamics, and their storytelling ability. It\u2019s a tricky one for The Amazing Race<\/em> because it\u2019s two people. I think we can all agree it\u2019s hard enough to get one person who checks every box. This cast, in particular, really delivered on the storytelling and overcame a lot while racing.”<\/p>\n Speaking on Survivor<\/em>, which received its first-ever nomination in the category this year, Tannenbaum specifically highlights some standout members from the cast of Season 48, which aired earlier in 2025. “We had such interesting storytellers like Mitch Guerra<\/strong>, who grew up with a stutter and applied for years,” he says. “And then there was Eva Erickson<\/strong>, who\u2019s on the spectrum and had that beautiful moment with Joe Hunter<\/strong>. I think really important conversations happen on Survivor<\/em> that some shows just don\u2019t hit.”<\/p>\n Survivor<\/em> is nominated for four total Emmys this year, including Outstanding Reality Competition Program, as well as Outstanding Host For A Reality Or Reality Competition Program for emcee and executive producer Jeff Probst<\/strong>. The Amazing Race<\/em>, which has won the Outstanding Reality Competition Program Emmy ten times, is nominated for six awards this year.<\/p>\n Related: From NASA to the MCU! Meet the Full Cast of ‘Survivor 49’<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n This story was originally reported by Parade<\/a> on Aug 21, 2025, where it first appeared in the TV<\/a> section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 2025 marks a banner year for Survivor. The show that revolutionized television back in the summer of 2000 has spent a quarter of a century showcasing people from a variety of backgrounds to millions of people, as they fight tooth and nail to vote each other out for the million-dollar prize. In 2020, in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1973440,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[351847,351846,351844,351843,351845,308295,347575],"class_list":["post-1973439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-black-lives-matter","tag-diversity-initiative","tag-george-floyd","tag-jesse-tannenbaum","tag-reality-shows","tag-survivor","tag-the-amazing-race"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Survivor-Big-Brother-and-Amazing-Race-Casting-Director-Responds-to.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1973439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1973439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1973439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1973440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1973439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1973439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1973439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}