Both interviews answered most of my questions regarding last week’s episode.
An Interview with Survivor: Micronesia’s Jonathan
by David Bloomberg -- 03/17/2008
RealityNewsOnline: Hello, Jonathan, and thanks for taking the time to talk to RealityNewsOnline! First, how is your knee?
Jonathan: My knee is a lot better and it is recovering. It is still quite stiff and sore, but it is a lot better. I hope to have 100% recovery, but there may be some long term issues – we’re not sure.
RNO: How long did recovery take?
Jonathan: It’s ongoing. I was in the hospital for a couple days and then moved to a hotel for treatment because the hospital was difficult, then I was flown out to a western style hospital where I was treated further and I was stitched up. Seventeen to twenty days, then ongoing here at home.
RNO: You seemed to be pushing through the pain – how bad was it?
Jonathan: It was bad. But I’m a big minimizer. It hurt and the pain got worse because the infection got worse. I would’ve stayed out as long as it was safe enough to do so. The doctor basically said I couldn’t stay out any longer, it was far too dangerous. I think the truth is they wish they’d taken me out a day earlier.
RNO: Do you think this edition of Survivor was more physical and dangerous than your original time out?
Jonathan: No, I think it was muddier. There was a lot more rain. I think that was the biggest difference. The first time out, I played hurt, but I did not get hurt. This time I played fit and got hurt. Chet’s injury was interesting – something the Favorites knew and had learned the hard way was that the worst injuries were the stones getting in your shoes and digging into your feet and getting infected. The worst time I had was when I had awful sores on my feet on Cook Islands and would put my shoes back on. He got injured in that football challenge and Ozzy and James and I did that challenge in bare feet and didn’t get hurt. I got hurt in that [later] challenge because of the terrible mud.
RNO: What exactly happened?
Jonathan: I don’t know what happened. They were not able to capture it on film. I have no memory of it. We did the challenge successfully and then were off [the course] and then my leg hurt with a big puncture and blood pouring down.
RNO: Do you think more could have been done to avoid contestant injuries?
Jonathan: This is a very touchy subject for me. No. I think they do an extraordinarily good job – this is the first season this has happened. There were a few other people taken out because of injuries [in Survivor history]. I think I’m the first due to an injury due to a challenge. It sounds like Chet got injured in a challenge as well. I think people who design these challenges are clever and smart, they don’t want anybody to get hurt.
They have a dream team out there, a bunch of young people running the challenge to make sure it’s fair – it’s a lot of work making sure it’s a fair game. But what they constantly learned was the dream team is not playing for a million dollars. So it would take 40 minutes [for the dream team to run through a challenge] and we would go and take two minutes, or vice versa. In the football challenge, the dream team did it quickly enough that they told us initially it was going to be best of three. Thirty minutes or so into that challenge, they said let’s vote – do you just want to do it once? That took 40 minutes. The dream team keeps them safe, I think it was just fricking bad luck or the rainy season. Things happen.
RNO: Going back to the beginning, what was your strategy coming into the game?
Jonathan: I knew that I wanted to work with – I had to find a set of allies out there. I did not, rightly or wrongly, trust Parvati. I did somewhat trust Ozzy, but I quickly saw a common ground – Yau-Man and I were working together. Eliza and Ami came to us within an hour of hitting the beach. That made a lot of sense to me. I really did believe Parvati, Ozzy, James, and Amanda would work together.
I guess there was some fantasy that Parvati and I could work together in a way nobody could suspect, but I saw that was not going to work – there was too much distrust. The four of us needed to pull in one other member. We pulled in two other members.
But then Jonny Fairplay lost his mind and had to get voted out, which was shocking and disappointing. I begged him to stay. He said, “you don’t need me, you’ve got five.” It was too tight a margin for my comfort, but what was I going to do? The man asked for our vote and we thought he was going to quit. So we didn’t vote Parvati and we voted for him.
Then the margin was five to four and Cirie and Yau-Man had a secret thing going. She felt betrayed and flopped away from him to get rid of Yau-Man. Once the flop happened and the mix-up, I found myself in a strong position. My leg notwithstanding. I think I would have gone very far in the game.
RNO: What was that about a secret thing between Cirie and Yau-Man? We didn’t see that and Yau-Man didn’t mention it to me when I talked to him.
Jonathan: I can tell you what my understanding is. I did not see this and maybe they’ll get mad at me for saying it. She told Yau-Man of the four clues and they were going to share the idol. He was going to try to get to Exile Island next and they would share it to the end. He felt he needed to distract the rest of us from suspecting the alliance, which I never suspected. So he suggested I be sent to Exile Island next – I don’t remember that but she remembered it.
She felt he and I were much more closely aligned than she and him and she decided to target him. Parvati needed her vote desperately so they had a meeting of the minds and found they had much more in common than with us. Of course Ami, Eliza, and I felt betrayed and blindsided. I think Yau-Man felt he had made a mistake and tried to stop her but it was too late. I told her she had no reason not to trust me but she didn’t believe me.
That’s my understanding of it. They may read this and tell you it didn’t happen that way.
RNO: When you saw Chet on TV, what did you think of his injury?
Jonathan: The TV presentation of what happened – Chet was not well portrayed and he’s here to argue with that. I didn’t think he was portrayed well. They certainly didn’t show us the medical team talking to him about his injury. Other people saw him as a layabout who was complaining about a booboo. The idea that he had this infection was not portrayed to us.
Clearly, now I have a totally different perspective. And I totally empathize with that because there is a difference between reality, perception, and reality TV. Chet’s experience is quite different than other people’s perspective on Chet and quite different from how he’s portrayed on TV.
I certainly know for a fact that he was put in the hospital and surgically taken care of and put on intravenous antibiotics – we didn’t meet but I was in the same hospital.
RNO: Speaking of portrayal, do you think your game was hurt by your portrayal the first time around?
Jonathan: Yes and no. People had a perception of me and I had to work against that. It’s a good thing and a bad thing. [When they got to know me,] people were able to see he’s this kind of person, I thought he was that kind but he’s like that. The disadvantage for all of us Favorites was that everybody has a perception of you, except James and Amanda. James and Amanda, I would have played quite differently if I had seen the end of the China season. I didn’t see him not play his two idols. I didn’t see Amanda cold-bloodedly play him. Getting to know them was wonderful and they had an advantage over the rest of us Favorites in that we only saw half their season – and the fans we didn’t know at all.
Was I hurt [by my previous portrayal]? Of course I was. Because I had been portrayed as an antagonistic character. The truth is I do antagonize people because I am blunt, loud, and forthright to a fault.
In my house we yell all the time, we air our problems immediately, so we don’t have many problems. That’s a different way of dealing with the world that makes people uncomfortable, in the same way that not airing problems makes me uncomfortable.
RNO: While you were leaving, you talked about how you were right where you wanted to be in the game – what were your plans going forward?
Jonathan: I certainly saw that if there was an immunity loss on our part – which I didn’t see coming – I believe I would have been able to solidify my alliance and gotten rid of Parvati, then another vote would have been James or Kathy or Jason. Then I would have merged up with Tracy or Erik or Ami on the other side and gotten rid of Ozzy and Amanda, ideally. I could see myself going at least to the final six or seven, probably five. [Chet, who is in the same room for interviews, says in the background, says, “final three.”] I do believe I could have done that. Who knows – you run into a stick and you’re out of the game. My bad luck, Chet’s bad luck is somebody else’s good luck – that’s the way the game works. All props to whoever wins. Running into a stick is as bad a way to go as any other.
RNO: What do you think of Cirie?
Jonathan: I have no problem with her. Cirie and I would probably get along fine at a party. We’ll have coffee and drinks at some point. But she needs to be the center of things. I need to be direct and forthright. Props to her – she’s a very canny player. Am I her favorite person? No. Is she mine? No. Do I need more friends? No.
She needed to find four people who needed her on an emotional level – this is my character analysis and interpretation of where she’s coming from. The five of us were a fivesome of relative equals, intellectually and in terms of power. Everything was voted on, we decided as a group. She didn’t trust the emotional reality of that fivesome, she needed a place where she felt needed and wanted. You heard her say, “they should be cooking my meals and carrying me around.” When people are willing to do that, she’s comfortable. Anything less than that makes her uncomfortable. That said, she’s a hell of a good game player, she’s doing great.
RNO: What was the most eye-opening thing you saw on TV that you didn’t know about while you were there?
Jonathan: The insanity on the Fans’ beach. We knew based on the votes that things there were crazy. And how bedraggled they looked because they kept losing reward challenges. The numbers were staying in parity, but they had nothing but a pot, flint, and a machete. We had this bounty and knew what to do with it. Watching the dynamic on that beach was eye-opening to me.
RNO: Do you have anything else you’d like to tell us about your time on Survivor?
Jonathan: I love Survivor, I love playing. I did it twice and each time I learned a lot of different things about myself. I think I changed a lot both times. I’m very grateful for that opportunity.
RNO: Thanks again, Jonathan! And good luck in your recovery.
Jonathan: Thanks!
And now on to Chet’s interview:
An Interview with Survivor: Micronesia’s Chet
by David Bloomberg -- 03/17/2008
RealityNewsOnline: Hello, Chet, and thanks for taking the time to talk to RealityNewsOnline! Starting at the beginning, what was your strategy coming into the game?
Chet: It’s kind of interesting. My strategy was truthfully to be he funniest person ever on Survivor, so that people would want me to stay around. I could see when I came into my game, obviously we didn’t know it would be Fans vs. Favorites, I picked up that I was on the stupidest tribe ever besides Tracy and Kathy – and I’ll throw Erik and Alexis a bone. Tracy and I were told one of us were going because we were the oldest. We took Kathy in with us which was wonderful. Our strategy was to stay a threesome, three votes always going the same way. People wanted us to stay because we didn’t care who we voted for as long as it wasn’t one of us, so if somebody was organizing a coup, they would come to us. And to the shock of pretty much the entire nation, I stayed on until the seventh.
RNO: You don’t seem like a very physical guy, and yet you’re a fan of the show so you know how it can get – what was your plan to overcome any possible physical liabilities?
Chet: I’m going to correct you. I would not say I’m not a physical person, I’m not an athletic person. Was I ever big in sports? Absolutely not. Did I hate gym class? Absolutely I did. Could I outwit people? Absolutely. I coached pageants and I have the best track record. I could read people. Like I told even Jeff, everybody who was praised for their physical abilities, they went before I did. So maybe they didn’t read that Survivor manual and I did.
RNO: When I talked to Joel last week, he said he thinks you’re a great guy who understands the game of Survivor. But he also said he doesn’t think you did a single thing to get yourself as far as you got. What do you have to say to that?
Chet: Just look at him, what does that tell you? Can you look up the word “neanderthal” in the dictionary? Let’s discuss Joel. If there was anything I could not substitute for him with a draft horse, he was out of his league. I’ll stop there.
RNO: Why did you decide to not go along with Tracy's plan? You could have done it, then withdrawn immediately after the vote.
Chet: Because I didn’t want to be withdrawn. I wanted to be voted out. My injury was not as serious or life-threatening as Jonathan’s. They wanted to pull me that morning. I asked if I could try that morning. If we could not win, I could go that way [through Tribal Council]. They asked, “then you’re going to throw the challenge?” I said, “You haven’t been watching us.” It worked out the way I was hoping it would. After it was over, I felt I was the luckiest person in the world. I played and went out without being blindsided or having immediate or quick ill feelings that I wasn’t aware was going to happen, and I liked the people I was with at the end.
RNO: They wanted to pull you out?
Chet: That would be the medical team. My foot was being looked at for the prior five or six days. Actually the last two days – you couldn’t tell, but Jason and I spent two days and two days on Exile Island – that’s when my foot got worse. We were checked over when they picked us up. I know enough about medicine that what they were talking about was accurate. To be brought back into a challenge and find out that Jonathan had left due to his injury, a light bulb went on and I knew to get my act together. And I chose to be voted out by people who for once were nice to me.
RNO: What exactly what wrong with your foot?
Chet: Jonathan had an open wound, mine was encased. A piece of coral was in my foot – the infection was in my foot. I was on oral antibiotics. In that climate, you need intravenous antibiotics. What I knew was I needed to open up my heel, which is why I asked Cirie for a fish hook to open it myself. I’ve done that before. I could tell I needed to get that pressure out of there. The next day I did have surgery on it and was on intravenous antibiotics for ten days. [Note: For those of you who might still be doubting Chet, Jonathan confirmed in my interview with him that Chet was indeed in the same hospital as him and went through what Chet described.]
RNO: Why did you vote for Erik?
Chet: Number one, Tracy and I made a pact we would never vote for each other. In the past, Erik had told me he was going to vote for me because he didn’t want to go against Joel. So I just returned the favor – we told him we’re voting for you because we felt that we should. We knew he would not get voted off. When I voted, I said he’s a class act. He can scoop my ice cream any time.
RNO: And why did Tracy also vote for Erik?
Chet: Erik was aware that was going to happen.
RNO: Do you feel that you quit the game?
Chet: I don’t feel I had a choice. I wouldn’t say I quit the game – no matter what I was going home that night. I was going home with the medics if they came and pulled me – the medics told me that. It’s a misfortune. Luck is either with you or against you. I’m not as strong a player as Jonathan, but I could have hung in for at least another one, Jonathan probably ‘til the end. There was definitely luck in everyone else’s favor that we went.
RNO: Did the medics essentially tell you the same thing they told Jonathan?
Chet: It wasn’t life-threatening like Jonathan’s, but it was very painful. It needed to be opened up, and an open wound in those conditions would have turned into something like Jonathan’s. They had to open it up in much more clinical surroundings.
RNO: How badly were you beat up in being dragged around by Joel in last week’s reward challenge?
Chet: I’m going to say it wasn’t as bad as it looked on TV. It hurt like hell. It just didn’t – it wasn’t something I expected. I was very angry at him as much as he was with me because he didn’t communicate the second time. I truthfully feel that’s what got him voted out that night – the rest of the tribe saw what he did and I don’t think they approved. Even the tribe I wasn’t on wasn’t happy with what he did. Fortunately I wasn’t hurt. Joel and I talked and we’re friends and that’s behind us.
RNO: What did you notice as the biggest difference between watching the game on TV and actually being there?
Chet: A couple people I didn’t really care to see naked that I did. Probably thing people don’t realize on TV – it’s how conditions affect your ability to play the game. You lose sleep, your appetite – but there’s nothing to eat anyway. It’s what it looks like, but only worse.
RNO: What was the most eye-opening thing you saw on TV that you didn’t know about while you were there?
Chet: You don’t know what everybody’s saying about you – that doesn’t bother me. That’s a big one out there. People ask me, after seeing what others said, “Don’t you hate so and so”? I can say no for two reasons. We were playing a game. It’s a giant board game with the board is an island. And people talked about me all my life, and you get a hard shell against it. If they don’t like it, that’s their problem.
The one thing that did bother me is that we were portrayed incredibly wrong. We built a shelter because after four days we still didn’t have one. We used our intelligence to build a shelter to keep us semi-dry. We were then ridiculed for pulling ourselves from everybody else. We welcomed anybody into that shelter or to help build another shelter. Tracy, Kathy, and I were good people and wouldn’t have turned anybody away.
RNO: Do you have anything else you’d like to tell us about your time on Survivor?
Chet: People always ask me, did you have fun? From Day 1, fun doesn’t fit into the equation. It was some of the most horrific, horrible times of my life as well as my most incredible, wonderful time of my life. That’s how to describe this particular game. It was an incredible experience both positive and negative. Would I go back again? Absolutely.
RNO: Thanks again, Chet! And good luck in your recovery.
Chet: Thank you very much!
FYI ... Survivor will air on Wednesday this week thanks to basketball.