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AXN's Survivor kneels down before Maneka's objections

Anjan Mitra

After Fashion TV, it is AXN channel's turn to face the government diktats. On an objection raised by animal rights activist and a Union minister, Maneka Gandhi, popular reality show Survivor had to pull out an episode off air last week.

Gandhi, the social justice and empowerment minister, had objected to scenes of animal slaughter by its participants in new series of the show Survivor: The Australian Outback. Subsequent to this complaint, AXN, an action channel from Sony Entertainment TV stable, pulled out an episode on last Thursday (repeated on Sunday) and a soft drinks major too had to pull out an ad featuring a parrot.

"Yes, we did hear that the honourable minister had raised some objections and we are looking into it as we are alive to the viewing sensibilities here. But we do not foresee a permanent problem," Gregory Ho, vice-president (marketing) AXN Asia, told Business Standard.

According to Ho, executives of Sony Entertainment are in touch with the government to sort out the issue and AXN executives will go through all future episodes of Survivor to see that it does not hurt Indian sensibilities. "There may not be major problems in future," he added.

Gandhi was not available for comments on Sunday. The scenes which are supposed to have raised Gandhi's hackles include one where the participants kill a pig in the wild for food.

However, a Delhi-based TV critic said Gandhi's objections might not hold much weight if they related to killing of pigs and animals in the wild for food by participants of Survivors who were actually surviving on whatever was available in the jungles where the show was set.

"International media reports have shown that participants of Survivor lose as much as one-third of their body weight during the contest and actually do survive on whatever the wilds have to offer," the TV critic said.

Survivor, a reality TV show, has been created by Mike Burnett who is also the co-founder of world's most famous adventure-endurance race, Eco-Challenge.

Survivor has a select team of castaways marooned on an island where they are deprived of basic comforts and exposed to harsh natural elements. They have to use their collective wits to survive even as they compete against each other. Week by week the tribe of survivors shrinks until at the end of the final episode only two survivors remain. At that point, the seven most recently eliminated participants decide who will be the final survivor. The winner takes home $1 million.

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