Survivor: All-Stars Color Barrier

Here's six players who didn't make Survivor: All-Stars: Original class-clown Gervase Peterson, Clarence Black (Africa), Sean Rector (Marquesas), Nick Brown (Australian Outback), Ted Rogers (Thailand) and Osten Taylor (Pearl Islands). In case you didn't notice, there were no — as in nada, zip, zero! — black male players in the championship edition. In fact, the only contestants of color were two women — Alicia Calaway and Shii Ann Huang. Does this strike anyone as odd?

Of course, the absence of some of the guys we listed can easily be explained. Although hunky, Osten was the first Survivor ever to quit the game. Hardly All-Stars material. And maybe Ghandia Johnson's sexual-harassment accusations kept Ted out of the running. But dudes like ace-plotter Sean wonder how they were forgotten. "I'm not surprised that Rob Mariano got the girl, the car and the money," Mariano's old buddy tells TV Guide Online. "I am surprised that there weren't any brothers on the show.

"Everybody wanted to do it. There's a few of us that would have been great," Sean adds. "There were a lot of politics involved. A lot of people aren't talking about that, but the black people that did the show are very aware of that. It sets a real bad precedent."

Gervase says he's equally puzzled. "We're not angry black men out here that are mad because we didn't make it on the show," he points out. "But are you trying to tell me that one black dude wasn't good enough to be on Survivor: All-Stars?"

"I didn't think about it," responds Survivor producer Mark Burnett. "I don't cast by color. I just cast who I thought were the best. I will tell you — nothing to do with color — I was very close to putting Sean Rector on the show because I really like him. He's a good character." Just not quite good enough, we guess.