Sofa Snark: Survivor Spoofs Lost's Dharma Initiative

James Sims is the Editor-in-Chief of TalkTVWorld.com and Senior Editor of BroadwayWorld.com. Sofa Snark is an ongoing critical blog focusing on all aspects of show business, from television entertainment to Broadway offerings and general pop culture.  This column also appears on the Huffington Post and SofaSnark.com.  Follow James on Twitter @simsjames for daily show business links, musings and a bit of snark.

CBS first premiered the high-stakes reality show Survivor in 2000. Nine years later the juggernaut continues to rack up ratings and suck viewers in. But, just because a show is popular doesn’t mean it can’t find new ways to promote itself. Marketing executives have decided to go by way of ABC’s Lost to promote the upcoming Survivor: Samoa.

Lost fans should be familiar with the fictitious Dharma Initiative and its choppy training videos. For those new to the world of Lost, feel free to read up on the lengthy history of all things Dharma on Lostpedia. CBS has taken a page from the Dharma playbook and concocted a similar training video starring the show’s host, Jeff Probst. It’s titled, “Tribal Council Orientation.”

The viral video is grainy, choppy and completely useless. Unless you count in the cool factor. Probst spends most of the video mocking himself and Survivor. As he introduces the reality show’s creator, Emmy Award winner Mark Burnett, Probst boasts of his own accomplishments. “I actually won an Emmy, too. Two in fact.”

This silly promotional video ends on a comical note as Probst says, “Now, shut up and listen carefully… there is one very small secret loophole that exists that can help you bypass tribal council…” In true Dharma Initiative fashion, he video then cuts to a transmission error. How will the latest cast of Survivor ever… survive without that crucial bit of information? I guess viewers will have to tune in and find out. Just don’t expect me to join you.

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