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.