TV Audience Disagrees With CBS ‘Survivor’ Outcome

MENLO PARK, Calif. – InterSurvey, the Web-based
opinion polling company, revealed some stunning results within minutes after
last night’s dramatic finish to the CBS game show phenomenon, “Survivor.” In
its real-time poll of the only Web-based, scientifically representative sample
of the entire U.S. population, the company found that, though the players gave
the $1 million first prize to Rich, the audience by a factor of more than two
to one thought the seven players who decided the final outcome made the wrong
decision.

When push comes to shove, said the scientifically valid poll results, most people in the U.S. would have awarded the top prize to Kelly, the other final contestant, not to Rich. But if they had their choice of all the contestants, the hands-down winner would have been Rudy — an older contestant who was
eliminated by the other players before the final round got under way.

“More than 900 members of our panel responded to our survey questions within minutes,” commented Catherine S. Edwards, Vice President of Marketing at InterSurvey. “This allowed our client, CBS News, to publish the results at its town meeting immediately following the last episode. It was because of our web-enabled technology that the survey results and analysis occurred in almost real time.”

Following are some of the findings reported during the minutes after the end of the final “Survivor” episode. In that episode, Richard — a motivational speaker in real life who, just before the final vote, grinned at the camera and announced, “I really want to win the million” — won the final
round against Kelly, a young woman who had entered and left several alliances along the way, apparently creating more hard feelings among her fellow contestants than among the audience members.

    Sample Findings (%) — Poll of national U.S. audience members:

    Do you think the right person won tonight?

          Yes:  31.6

          No:   67.6

 Of the final four, who would get your vote?

Rudy: 44.7

Kelly: 41.5

Richard: 11.6

Susan: 1.7
 Did the winner (Richard) play fair?

Yes: 60.7

No: 38.9
 For the $1 million prize, would you have done what the winner had to do?

Yes: 48.7

No: 51.0

NOTE: The percentages do not add to 100% because some respondents declined to answer any given question.