Former Survivor Says Producer Influenced Votes

May 31, 2001 -- LOS ANGELES (Reuters) — The cast of the first Survivor has moved from a tropical island near Borneo to the urban jungle of law offices and courtrooms, where a battle is being waged over whether the show that captivated America was on the up and up.

Three months after former contestant Stacey Stillman sued CBS and producers of Survivor, claiming the show was fixed, newly released correspondence and testimony from fellow player Dirk Been could prove to be a bombshell in the case.

In a sworn deposition last month recalling his experience on the CBS series, Been said he was persuaded to change his mind and vote to oust Stillman at the suggestion of executive producer Mark Burnett, whose influence over contestants, Been said, "affected the outcome of the show in an unfair manner."

Been also wrote in a letter to Burnett last May that he "felt cheap and used" after learning that "not everything was as it seemed" on the show and that Burnett had "swung votes" in the selection process among players.

Burnett has said he and others on the production team routinely interviewed contestants during filming of the show, eliciting their strategies and opinions of other players to help build creative tension for the broadcasts. But he denied under oath that he or anyone else "ever attempted to manipulate, coerce, influence, direct, induce, or intimidate" the players.

Been's letter, the transcript of his April 10 deposition, and copies of sworn statements from Burnett and others were made public late last week as legal maneuvering continued in the lawsuit Stillman filed in February.

The producers have countersued Stillman for defamation and breach of contract. They deny doing anything to alter the outcome of the show, which created a media sensation in its first, island-based edition last summer and drew high ratings again this spring with a series set in the Australian Outback.