Greeting Survivor FReeks,
Just under 60 hours to go!
And finally, here is part 3 of the Media Conference that Survivor Host Jeff Probst held on 9/12/2007.
For part 1 see post number 58 above.
For part 2 see post number 74 above.
Again, many thanks to the folks over at SurvivorFever.net for transcribing the conference.
Colleen: At this time, Jeff, if you wouldn't mind, could we just run down the 16 and give a couple sentences on your thoughts on each one of them.
JP: Jean-Robert [Bellande], extremely confidant to the point of cocky arrogance. Part of that is his plan, part is just natural personality. In terms of somebody you want to have on the show, he's gold.
JP: James [Clement] is a grave-digger from Louisiana. Physically, the biggest guy we've ever had on the show. Surprisingly one of the most agile. I thought that James might be a guy who couldn't really stretch or move and was just all muscle. You see in the very first challenge, he goes up against Frosti, this young parkour kid. They go head to head and Frosti's got nothing on James. James is kind of like a gentle giant in that he's pretty quiet unless you rile him up and then he has no filter and he will say whatever he is thinking at whatever volume he wants to say it. That was interesting and a bit of a liability for him out there.
JP: Dave Cruser is nuts. Dave works to the point of exhaustion, then loses his mind and continues to try to contribute. He's just zany enough to be entertaining and annoying if you have to live with him. At the heart of Dave is a big heart. The guy works so hard from the second he gets out there. He really wants to build something. He really wants to have a group of people but he's a guy that is going to need to study "The Art of War" early if he's going to stay long.
JP: Jaime Dugan is an interesting combination of sorority girl and honor student. She's very pretty and she's from South Carolina. She's got a pretty good head on her shoulders especially when it comes to being with people. Jaime factors into the strategy of her tribe quite a bit.
JP: Todd Herzog is the guy I was talking about earlier. He's very young and never missed an episode of Survivor. He's studied it from when he was a kid. Of all the people on the show this season, Todd knew Survivor the best. Todd knows what to expect. He knows the odds of there being a merge or a loved one visit or an auction. He can tell you based on what day it is what we're probably doing back at base camp. It's kinda scary how much he knew about the show. He's a great storyteller. Like Jean-Robert, Todd is somebody you go to all the time because he always gives you something good.
JP: Eric Huffman is a little bit like Ethan in that Eric is a very quiet polite kid. He's a quite talented musician but out in Survivor he was definitely a follower for most of it. He just wanted to get along. I was a little suspect that maybe there was a little something else going on. His game was from the beginning, I'm a nice guy and that's how I'm going to play it.
JP: Amanda [Kimmel] is a former Miss Montana. She's beautiful. Great physical body in terms of athlete. She's very strong and can pull her own weight at camp and at challenges. She knows the game very well. She totally gets how Survivor is played. She is playing to win. Amanda is somebody you look around and think she's a little like Amber, keep her around until you don't need her anymore. Good luck.
JP: Peih-Gee [Law] has a very strong opinion about everything and that is going to be her biggest obstacle to get over is to not tell you what she thinks...and often it's negative...and often it's delivered in a negative way. What Peih-Gee has going for her is willpower. She will not go away. You're going to have to really want to get rid of her.
JP: Sherea [Lloyd] is a fourth grade teacher. She is out of her element. She ends up with the clothes on her back and quickly finds herself in her bra and underwear and is not that comfortable and then amazingly very quickly begins to sort of embrace it. Sherea, much like Peih-Gee, has a strong point of view. She loves to talk about it. She loves to mix it up. She loves to go head to head with you about anything. It makes for good television.
JP: Denise Martin is a lunchlady. She is one of the most endearing people we've had on the show in a long time. She has an unmistakable haircut, a mullet. It's a fascinating piece of hairstyle, you can't help but ask her about it. Her answer was so charming. She said, "I work with food so I have a need to keep my hair short to keep it out of the food. I'm also a woman and I'm a wife and I want to be sexy for my husband so I want some length in the back. What you see is what you get.
JP: Ashley [Massaro] is a wrestler. Ashley has one of the most unique looks of anyone we've ever had on the show. She's altered her body in many ways from piercings to tattoos to breast implants. On top of it all she's very physically fit. She makes her living throwing people around. I think Ashley's strength is going to be that she's a strong woman. I think her liability is she's one of the divas of the WWE. That diva part of her is going to have to go.
JP: [Steve] Chicken Morris is a one of a kind. He is a chicken farmer. He doesn't know Sur...he doesn't...Chicken is the oldest guy out there. That's the toughest thing for Chicken the first few days, figuring out the balance between being Chicken, the guy who knows how to build a shelter and being this guy that's playing the game that needs to blend in with all these younger people that only think they know how to build a shelter. That's his big struggle. This is a guy who has lived on his own for so long and does things his own damn way. That doesn't work on Survivor. Chicken found himself in a situation of either "stick to my roots and be the first one gone or adapt and learn how to deal with these younger people."
JP: Leslie Nease, Christian radio talkshow host. Leslie is a really nice woman. She's a mother. She's very accomplished. She's done a lot in her life. Her current occupation is she hosts a talk show. For her, religion will play a part. Early on she's forced to go to a Buddhist temple which was not a worshipping ceremony but has a worship element to it. That was difficult for her. Right away she's exposed as somebody who has a strong faith. The question is, will people manipulate her and her faith or will she use her faith to manipulate others. Where is her line? Will she cross it to win a million dollars?
JP: Surfing instructor Aaron [Reisberger]. I describe Aaron as kind of cold and steely. Aaron told us when we first met him, "When I bartend, I can read people so fast that I know what to say to them and how to treat them to get the maximum tip." I thought that if he's telling the truth he's going to do very well because that is at the essence of Survivor, reading people and knowing what makes them tick and how to get to them. I think Aaron is very good at knowing what people need and how to give it to them. Aaron is probably used to leading and that will either really work well for him or kill him. He's not a passive guy that's going to sit back and say, yeah okay whatever.
JP: Courtney [Yates] is the smallest person we've had. She couldn't have weighted 100 pounds but she passed our physical test and was cleared by the doctors. She is one of the wittiest and negative people we've ever had on the show. I really got a kick out of Courtney. I enjoyed her sarcasm, her extremely dry wit. She always had a comment about what was going on and it was almost always funny and simultaneously insightful. Her liability is going to be her size. Can she contribute anything worth keeping her around? Or does she try to last long enough where her size becomes an asset because nobody thinks she can win so they keep her around. She's in a really interesting position. If I were her I'd just try to bury myself somewhere in the middle and hope I can make it so late that a combination of my personality and my lack of physical ability will make me somebody you want to keep around. Courtney was, for me, a delight because of her caustic personality.
JP: Frosti [Zernow] is the youngest kid we've ever had on the show. He does this sport called parkour. It's sort of like what they did in the latest James Bond movie where they jump over signs and jump up onto railings. He's just very physically gifted. We saw his tape and thought, this guy is great for challenges. In the very first challenge he goes up against James and there's this huge wall and it was built with a rope that you're supposed to use to climb up the wall and pull yourself over. We thought, okay, Frosti might skip the rope. Sure enough, he leaps off of a platform at this wall and pulls himself up. Right behind him is James, this 6' 4" massive guy, he does the same thing. I thought, oh my God, we have some athletes this season between Frosti and James and Aaron and ummm, I just lost the other guy...Amanda and Ashley. We've got some pretty physically fit people.
I’ll be back tomorrow with a vid cap (or two) of the tribal council set-up. So till then,
Take Care,
FReepmail me if you want added to (or removed from) the Survivor Ping List.
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Notable Survivor Quote:
"They're as nervous as a whore in church."
“Big” Tom Buchanan, Survivor Africa