THE much ballyhooed war of the races came to a quiet end Thursday night on “Survivor: Cook Islands.”

The stunt, which drew international attention to the aging reality show, was quietly eliminated when all this season’s contestants were merged into two tribes in the third episode.

Initially, the latest collection of “Survivor” castaways were broken up into four teams divided by race (African-Americans, whites, Asians and Hispanics) – raising the hackles of viewers, politicians and civil rights groups.

On Thursday night’s show there was no explanation for the quick abandonment of the strategy.

Despite the hoopla, the stunt had little effect on the program’s ratings.

Viewership for “Survivor” has remained largely flat (around 16 million viewers) compared to last year.