A major scandal hit Survivor on Wednesday night, and now, the whole competition is at a standstill!
On the latest episode of the long-standing CBS reality TV show, contestant Dan Spilo was accused by multiple competitors of “inappropriate touching” during the competition. But quickly thereafter, two of the accusers admitted they exaggerated their accusations in order to get him voted off the island. Wait, what?!
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The whole thing started when contestant Kellee Kim expressed concern about Dan, a Hollywood agent, “being too touchy and violating in [her] personal space,” even after she made multiple requests for him to stop. By all appearances, Kellee’s concerns were completely legitimate. She finally felt comfortable enough with two other contestants — Missy Byrd and Elizabeth Beisel — to reveal her concerns to them, too, and they doubled down on Kellee’s claims, adding that they had also felt threatened by Dan’s touching.
Feeling empowered, and clearly emotional as she broke down into tears about it, Kellee took her accusations off-camera to the production team. She spoke about it in a confessional, saying (below):
“This isn’t just one person. It’s a pattern. It takes five people to be like, ‘Man, the way I’m feeling about this is actually real. It’s not in my head. I’m not overreacting to it.’ He’s literally done these things to five different women in this game. That sucks. That totally, totally sucks.”
Producers and execs immediately intervened, addressing the issue off-air with all of the show’s contestants. According to a title card shown during that segment of the episode, Dan was given an official warning for his behavior, and producers supported Kellee throughout the ordeal.
Problem solved, right? Well, not exactly…
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All’s Fair In The Game?
The in-game controversy was only just beginning, as it quickly became clear Missy and Elizabeth had cynically gamed Kellee’s emotions in an attempt to build a coalition to vote Dan off the island. After Kellee opened up to the two women, they too shared their supposed negative experiences with Dan — only to later admit in Kellee’s absence they had exaggerated in order to make the Hollywood agent a target to be voted out.
At one point, Missy even went so far as to tell Elizabeth to encourage the group’s “mom,” Janet Carbin, to vote Dan off, as well.
Missy said to Elizabeth:
“You tell [Janet] how uncomfortable you are. Like, you have a very open mom-daughter moment about how uncomfortable you are. Right now, that’s our only play.”
Elizabeth responded:
“If I can play up that card in whatever way possible, I’ll do it. My job is to do whatever it takes to get on the right side of the numbers. The original Vokai are not the biggest fan of Dan, so if I can play up that card in whatever way possible, I’ll do it.”
However, in a confessional after that scene, Elizabeth admitted Dan had never actually made her feel uncomfortable, and she was simply using that angle to vote him off the island:
“Honestly, I’ve felt safe this entire time and if I had felt uncomfortable I would have said, ‘Please stop.’”
Wow… Controversial gameplay, or what?!
A Twist At The Vote
When it actually came time to vote, Janet took the bait and voted for Dan, due to her “personal, emotional need to have these girls feel okay” while on the island. But Missy and Elizabeth, having gamed the system to their liking, ironically voted for Kellee to be booted from the show. Ultimately, there were enough votes all around to send Kellee packing — even though she had two idols she could have played. There’s always a twist at Tribal Council…
Janet, for one, was sickened by how the show’s real-life sexual misconduct scandal was apparently used as a bait-and-switch by the two contestants, and she revealed after the vote that the embellished misconduct accusations “disgusted” her. Furthermore, Janet was so distraught over the apparent misconduct issue, she had actually thought about quitting herself after hearing what she thought were three stories of “inappropriate touching.” To learn Missy and Elizabeth had been making it all up, then, was quite a shock for the show’s “mom.”
Dan quickly met up with Elizabeth after the vote, too, and got to the bottom of whether she and Missy actually felt the same way as Kellee had earlier in the episode. Elizabeth quickly copped to the ruse in a confessional, saying:
“My viewpoint is that I have never felt uncomfortable. I know what people are talking about, but it’s more in a joking way, and maybe that’s where we’re on the wrong [side] of it because we shouldn’t be joking about it.”
Uhhhh, that’s correct, Elizabeth… you should not be joking about stuff like that, even in a game setting like Survivor.
How is that not obvious?!
Dan Apologizes
To his credit, at least, Dan did apologize to all competitors during the Tribal Council meeting at the end of the episode, saying:
“I work in the most high-wire industry in regards to this business. Most of my clients are women, most of the people I work with are women. I work in an industry in which the #MeToo movement was formed and allowed — thank God — to blossom and become powerful and strong. My personal feeling is if anyone ever felt for a second uncomfortable about anything I’ve ever done, I’m horrified about that and I’m terribly sorry. If that person was Kellee — if Kellee ever felt that in the freezing cold rain, or in tight shelters… or in all the ways we have to crawl around and through each other in this game — if I ever did anything that ever even remotely made her feel uncomfortable, it horrifies me, and I am terribly sorry.”
And he continued on, adding:
“True, untrue, it doesn’t matter what I feel. It doesn’t matter whether I’m aware of it. It doesn’t matter whether I ever sensed it. It doesn’t matter whether I knew it happened or it didn’t happen. If someone feels it, it’s their truth. I couldn’t be more sorry. I couldn’t be more confident in that I’m one of the kindest, gentlest people I know. I have a wife, I have been married for 21 years, I have two boys, I have a big business, I have lots of employees. I think what upset everybody here is that this has somehow turned into gameplay.”
That’s quite an apology.
It didn’t ultimately keep Kellee in the game, of course, nor did it make up for the (legitimate) loss of her personal space, but at least it’s significantly better than the “apologies” put forth by others who have been accused of sexual misconduct recently. And at least he took the high road, if only for a moment, even while Missy and Elizabeth decidedly did not.
Baby steps, we suppose?
Kellee Speaks Out…
After going through all that she did (and being voted out anyways), Kellee opened up about things late Wednesday night in a touching Instagram post, as you can see here:
“Am I laughing or crying? Probably a little bit of both,” she wrote along with the photo.
The reality TV contestant added:
“If anything, Survivor has reminded me of how lucky I am to have genuine, truly good loved ones in my life. I am so grateful for all of the support this season from friends, family, and fans. Thank you — you have all made watching this back so incredibly fun. I first applied to be on the show because of my love for the game but as I went through casting, it became so much more than that. It was important to me to be a positive role model and break the stereotypes that still persist in Hollywood, reality television, and society at large. I hope I was able to do a little bit of that and bring a bit of joy and laughter to your Wednesday nights.”
She also tweeted after the episode aired, asking people to be kind to Missy, Elizabeth, and Dan over their respective actions shown during the controversial premiere:
Hi everyone, I'm hurting and very sad watching this last episode too, but please try to be kind and understanding. No one deserves threats or shaming, and we can talk about this in a way that we are all better for it???????? #Survivor #Mentalhealth
— Kellee Kim (@kellee_kim) November 14, 2019
Truly taking the high road!
Jeff Probst Weighs In
As of now, Dan, Missy, Elizabeth, and Janet are all still in the game, and host Jeff Probst is weighing in about what is quickly turning out to be one of the more controversial moments in Survivor history.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly about the entire incident, the longtime reality TV mainstay and congenial host said:
“I am incredibly proud of Kellee for being willing to speak up. She was very courageous in speaking her truth. It’s very clear that Dan’s touching was making some of the women uncomfortable, and we saw many of those moments on camera. There is no denying that it happened. But as Missy and Elizabeth embellished their stories about the situation, it put Dan in an unfair light and further complicated everything.”
Jeff also acknowledged his role in specifically bringing up the allegations at Tribal Council — and how Dan’s apology was viewed in light of the entire controversy.
The Emmy-winning adventurer added:
“This was an obviously important story. Dan was the central figure in the story, so [Tribal Council] was the appropriate forum for the discussion. This situation also highlighted another layer of the changing dynamic between men and women: You don’t have to feel unsafe to feel uncomfortable and making someone uncomfortable is not okay. This is new territory for this important conversation and my hope was that everybody could share their point of view, in an open forum, about what had gone down and we could get total clarity. But, as you saw, players were still very much in game mode and reluctant to talk.”
No kidding…
Where Do YOU Stand?
Obviously, there are multiple issues at play here. As Jeff himself notes, no one is discounting Kellee’s accusations against Dan, and actions like that have clear, real-life implications, especially for victims. What is more controversial, though, is how Missy and Elizabeth preyed on Kellee’s real concerns to drive a wedge into the game.
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So we ask, you, Perezcious readers, how far is too far? Are you as “disgusted” as Janet over this whole thing? Should Missy and Elizabeth be reprimanded for gaming Kellee’s accusations in a way that could benefit them? What about Dan — was a warning strong enough in his case, or should he have been booted off the show immediately?
And how far is too far? Is everything fair in a cut-throat game like Survivor, or should real-world concerns take on a different level of severity beyond what can be used to win an extra vote on reality TV? Quite a lot to take in with this one, y’all. Sound OFF with ALL your opinions about everything here in the comments (below)…
[Image via FayesVision/WENN/CBS/YouTube]
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