Spam canned meat sales

Survivor and Spam would seem, to the naive observer, to share only the first letter of their names, yet here are their sales-and-viewership curves agreeing politely about the shape of recent years. One is a show about people trying not to be voted off an island. The other is what they would probably eat there.

Both lines moved sharply in 2020 for different pandemic reasons. Spam sales hit their highest levels in decades as Americans stockpiled shelf-stable protein during the early lockdown panic, while Survivor's viewership dropped as covid paused production, delayed seasons, and sent audiences drifting to streaming alternatives. Two brands built on austerity and endurance, both forced to explain a year.

So the correlation is two very different kinds of emergency ration, one for the pantry and one for the living room. The real tribal council, in 2020, was the supermarket. Nobody was immune.