The News
Paramount is trying to distance itself from a former CBS television personality who is publicly attacking the network’s rightward turn.
In recent months, multi-season Survivor contestant Eliza Orlins has shared posts criticizing some of the network’s programming decisions, including casting pro-Trump contestants on Survivor, cancelling late-night host Stephen Colbert, and CBS News’ choice to shelve a 60 Minutes piece on US deportation of Venezuelan migrants to a notorious El Salvadoran prison.
Last year, Orlins posted an “exposé” on her Patreon page about Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick, noting her pro-Trump posts and previous skepticism of the Covid-19 vaccine. The post prompted LaGrossa Kendrick to respond in an Instagram Live rant: “Don’t come at me with your political status when you’re f*cking Jewish and your parents are 1% of the population of wealth.”
The posts on social media — and the backlash to LaGrossa Kendrick, who later apologized for her remarks — seemed to get the attention of CBS’ parent company, Paramount, which requested a meeting with Orlins earlier this year, Semafor has learned. During the meeting, the network suggested that Orlins was violating its rules around trademarked branding and phrases on her Patreon. But the legal representatives also urged Orlins to respect other contestants, and implied that her political posts were harming other contestants.
Paramount did not respond to a request for comment. A CBS source familiar with the conversation said the call focused on the trademark issue, and said the call was not the result of Orlins’ political statements about the network.
Now, with the premier of Survivor’s landmark 50th season on Wednesday, Orlins is hoping to draw fans’ attention to what she argued were the network’s attempts to placate the administration while taking its left-leaning viewers for granted.
In a video first shared with Semafor, Orlins calls out the network for refusing to condemn LaGrossa Kendrick’s comments and making LaGrossa Kendrick a part of the promotional cycle for the new season. She also notes the network’s recent dustup with late night host Stephen Colbert, and says the network’s new evening news anchor, Tony Dokoupil, has been too deferential to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.
“CBS is not being neutral here,” Orlins says in the video.
She continues: “When you look at who CBS is rehabilitating across its entire programming slate, from primetime entertainment to news, a picture emerges: They are choosing a side, and they are using your viewership to launder that choice,” she said.
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Max’s view
In its first several months of existence, the newly-merged Paramount Skydance is sending a clear message to audiences and politicians: We’ve been too liberal in the past, and we want to change that.
That message has pleased some on the right, who have praised Paramount over its decision to buy The Free Press, cut ties with Stephen Colbert, and bring back one of the president’s favorite film franchises.
But it’s also a risky prospect for a media company long built on Hollywood film and television and mainstream broadcast news — fields that have not always attracted talent with conservative views.
The media company’s positioning has already irked some of its existing stars. Since Paramount decided not to keep Colbert on for another season, the late night host hasn’t shied away from calling out Paramount for what he has seen as caving to political pressure.
Others have made a deliberate choice to break with a network that they no longer trust. Last week, Breaker reported that Anderson Cooper would also be leaving the network after friction with the new leadership team at CBS led by editor-in-chief Bari Weiss. And in her video on Sunday, Orlins acknowledged that she’d likely not be allowed to appear on the show again. “While I was on Survivor twice, after this video I know I will certainly never be on again,” she said.
Room for Disagreement
In a consolidated media landscape with shrinking budgets and declining employment options, some stars who dislike Paramount’s current messaging will almost certainly overlook their differences if it means an opportunity to work. And for Paramount, losing an expensive late-night comedian and irritating a few TV personalities may ultimately be the cost of doing business in a world where the biggest transactions could hinge on the feelings of a mercurial and demanding world leader.