Reality television competitions strive to put contestants into stressful and often mood-altering conditions. Sometimes this allows people to become the best version of themselves, but more often than not, it leads to drama, drama, and more drama. On the upcoming season of CBS' Survivor, the production team has put together a group of contestants that include ex-Major League Baseball player John Rocker, his girlfriend Julie McGee and gay couple Reed Kelly and Josh Canfield. We should just go ahead and prepare for the wave of primetime homophobia that is likely to follow.
Rocker has a reputation in sports for being a hater of all kinds of minorities. He famously slurred gay people in an offhand conversation with Sports Illustrated about his disdain for New York City.
It's the most hectic, nerve-wracking city. Imagine having to take the [Number] 7 train to the ballpark, looking like you're [riding through] Beirut next to some kid with purple hair next to some queer with AIDS right next to some dude who just got out of jail for the fourth time right next to some 20-year-old mom with four kids. It's depressing."
This isn’t the only awful statement the former MLB player has made to the media in the past. For short snippets of his douchebaggery, you need go no further than the man’s Twitter page, where he rants about everything from “liberal shitheads” to “shit talkers.” Apparently, he’s cool with black people, though, since some of them “dress like rednecks, too.” This could be a disaster.
Rocker’s attitude is so not in keeping with Kelly and Canfield, who both told CBS that if they could bring an item on the trip, it would be their respective bibles. While I’d like to think Rocker has changed opinions since that 2000 SI article, or at least learned to keep his mouth shut, we’ll have to wait and see. The rest of the cast is pretty diverse this season, too, featuring all kinds of couples and family members. The Amazing Race’s Natalie and Nadiya Anderson will be competing for yet another prize on Survivor. They’ll star in Season 29 of the competition series opposite brothers Drew and Alec Christy, father and son duo Keith and Wes Nale, mother and daughter partners Missy Payne and Baylor Wilson, couple Jeremy and Val Collins, college sweethearts Jacyln Schultz and Jon Misch and the father and daughter duo of Dale and Kelley Wentworth. As Rocker mentioned in a video posted to EW earlier today, he’s going to try to stay “below the radar.”
Season 29 of Survivor was shot in Sn Juan del Sur in Nicaragua, and as you can tell from the descriptions of the people involved, the latest installation of the reality series will feature contestants competing against loved ones. The theme for the season is “Blood vs. Water.” We’re not sure exactly what that will entail at this point, but you can catch Season 29 when it hits the fall schedule on Wednesday, September 24 at 8 p.m. ET.
