Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Israel News

Big Brother is Watching You

CBS found itself in hot water last week. The 24-hour microphones and cameras on the network’s reality-TV show “Big Brother 8” caught contestant Amber Siyavus Tomcavage talking in whispers. “The majority of Jewish people I know, my gosh, so many are so selfish,” she said to another contestant. “So weird.” The 27-year-old Las Vegas cocktail waitress also said she was taught that one can tell who is Jewish “by their last name” and “by their nose.” The statements did not air on CBS, but appeared on both the “Big Brother” after-show feed on the Showtime channel and on the live Internet feed.

Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, responded quickly and criticized CBS for its role in the incident. “What they’ve done is distributed antisemitism — which started as a private conversation — and by putting it on a reality TV show broadcast it to the world at large,” Foxman told the celebrity gossip and news Web site TMZ.com. “I want CBS to understand they are facilitating antisemitism. They should act responsibly to the community; they are legitimizing bigoted conversation.”

CBS offered a carefully worded response. “At times, the Houseguests reveal prejudices and other beliefs that we do not condone,” the show’s producer said. “We certainly find the statements made by Amber Siyavus on the live Internet feed to be offensive and they will not be part of any future broadcast on the CBS television network.”

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.