The headlines were aghast when CBS announced a racial angle to the new season of Suirvivor:  4 tribes segregted by race.

New ‘Survivor’ Divides Groups by Race

Get ready for a segregated "Survivor." Race will matter on the upcoming season of the CBS show as contestants will be divided into four tribes by ethnicity. That means blacks, whites, Latinos and Asians in separate groups.

The arguments started immediately:

‘Survivor’: racism or ratings?

CBS’ "Survivor" stuck a stick in a beehive and is probably enjoying the loud buzz it has created.

The original vote-them-off-the-island show sets up camp in the Cook Islands for its 13th edition and establishes a new racial divide, at least according to protest groups, when it airs at 8 tonight.

This time the folks in pursuit of the million-dollar pot of gold will be segregated by race and ethnic background. There will be black and white teams as well as Hispanics and Asians competing against one another.

The alarm bells started ringing before the ink was dry on the press release.

"Just plain stupid … and preposterous," John Liu, a Manhattan councilman and member of New York City’s Black, Latino and Asian Caucus told The Associated Press.

"It’s not reality TV, it’s racist TV," said a spokesman for Hispanics Across America in a Reuters wire service report.

The group’s founder called it a "cheap and offensive trick" on Yahoo News. "How could anybody be so desperate for ratings?" Liu asked in that same story.

My thought at the time?  a)  Who cares and b) PR stunt.  I mean since Survivor is filmed in advance, it is not a "live" reality show, this was a foregone conclusion.  They already did it, so announcing it was just a way to generate ratings.

Stunned" and "dismayed" is how Harry Smith, host of CBS’ "Early Show," described his initial reaction while talking with Probst, who acknowledged some contestants had "some mixed reactions." Smith said there were some groans around the staff coffeepot and a feeling that "Survivor" had gone too far this time.

Meanwhile, the Black, Latino and Asian Caucus demanded that CBS cancel this edition altogether, according to the New York Post.

The Cook Islands will freeze over before that happens. The show has already been taped, so there’s a bunch of money on the line, not to mention the odds against a network turning on one of its own series, especially such a successful one.

I was right.

It was clearly a PR stunt since the trick only lasted 2 episodes.

‘Survivor’ ends segregation game

All the hubbub about the "Survivor" ethnic experiment turned out to be pretty worthless.

Why? Because after only two episodes, producers merged the black, white, Asian and Latino tribes into two mixed-race gangs on the CBS reality show Thursday night. No explanation was given for the quick abandonment of segregation; it seemed to pass by so quickly as to mean nothing.

"We’re back to America. We’re a melting pot," said Parvati, a boxer on the new Raro tribe. "I love it."

So what was the point?  Shock value?  A little social misdirection?

Naw.  Ratings, pure and simple.  Annouce it, ride the controversy, and then just merege as normal into new tribes.

The race-based angle to this season’s show had brought a firestorm of criticism down on the show and CBS Corp. Several major advertisers pulled out.

You fell for it like it was serious.  It wasn’t.  All you did was give them exactly what they wanted.

Ratings. Just rating.

Suckers!