Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Dustin Rowles | News | October 16, 2025
Zohran Mamdani is running for mayor of New York City and, in the polls, winning handily against Andrew Cuomo, who he already beat in the Democratic primary. No matter. Cuomo is running again, now as an independent, and believes that he can siphon enough Republican voters away to defeat Mamdani (and he basically has the backing of the President, who says that if Mamdani wins, he’ll stop sending federal funds to NYC).
It’s an empty threat. Mamdani is more popular than ever (and maybe, just maybe, laying the foundation for the kind of populist Democratic candidate the party needs to win not only in 2026 but in 2028 (see also Maine’s Graham Platner)).
Anyway, this is actually television-related, because last night, Mamdani aired an ad during Survivor on network television (for the young folks, that’s a kind of television that can be transmitted through the use of an antenna or a cable box). The spot featured formr Survivor contestants Brandon Donlon, Yamil “Yam Yam” Arocho, Katurah Topps, Jacob Derwin, Stephanie Berger, Natalie Anderson, and Teeny Chirichillo, and the ad basically trolls Cuomo where it hurts him the most: On an old-school medium like network television.
It’s doubly funny because Cuomo has been trying — and failing, spectacularly — to mimic Mamdani’s success on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, so it’s hilarious to see Mamdani come along and basically beat Cuomo in Cuomo’s medium, too.
Mamdani also did this a few weeks ago, airing a Bachelor-themed ad during The Golden Bachelor because, again, Mamdani is better at this than Cuomo (and most everyone else, too).
A CBS spokesperson has asked us to add this disclaimer to this post: “Federal law required our New York station WCBS-TV to run this candidate ad despite there not being any relationship to either Survivor or WCBS-TV.”
