Survivor

The 31st season of Survivor is almost here and I can’t wait!!

It’s hard to believe the show has been on for 31 seasons and it’s still going strong.

I’ve loved the show ever since it’s started. Who wouldn’t like the chance to “outwit, outplay, outlast” for one million U.S. dollars?

I know I would, which is why I signed up for the show back before it was even a ‘thing’.

That’s right, like many I’ve applied to be on Survivor many times. What you may not know is that for the very first season I got a callback and the opportunity to be interviewed to be on the show.

Granted, I didn’t make it, but that hasn’t stopped me for applying many times and it’s only increased my love for the show.

Back in the fall of 1999, while living in Utah and working at a collections center, a co-worker showed me a blurb in the newspaper. Had I known how big Survivor would have become I would have saved the blurb, but unfortunately I didn’t.

From what I recall it was a very small snippet, like one of those small towns that “if you blink you’ll miss it”. It indicated they wanted adventurous people who were willing to live remotely to compete for a million dollars on TV. My friend was married with children and knew his wife wouldn’t approve, and since I was single and had lived in the Dominican Republic, he thought I should try out for it.

“Why not, what have I got to lose?” I asked myself.

I believe the ad referred the reader to CBS’ website for further details, which was to fill out a fairly lengthy application, submit a 3 minute video, current photos, and proof of a current passport (valid through at least the end of 2000).

The Video

The reality TV craze of today was almost non-existent in 1999 when I made my video. I had no idea what to do, but I knew that CBS would be the owner of the show and that one of their current hits was “Touched by an Angel“.

I thought I would tie the two together and use “Touched by an Angel” as a theme for my entry video to get on Survivor.

My friend, buddy, co-worker, travel companion, and roommate Josh was excited and eager to help. He had a friend who happened to have two Australian female friends in town and we enlisted them to help. I figured if CBS didn’t like what I had to offer then perhaps having two attractive Australians on screen would be of help.

I wrote out a rough script over a few days and on the day of the shoot I picked up the Australians. I estimated our 3-minute shoot would be done in about 30 minutes with all the takes and then we’d easily edit it later.

(L-R) Rebekah, me, Diana (November 8, 1999)

Boy, was I wrong.

It was hard work. The video featured an exchange between me and the Australians. With only one camcorder it was too hard to go back-and-forth between us. We were also horrible at memorizing lines.

Our solution was to film us separately. While I was being filmed “acting” my parts, they had the script and read their parts. Then they were filmed “acting” their parts while I read off the script.

While filming we realized we needed them to be more ‘angelic’. That required us to go pick up some massive flood lights and a fan.

During the shoot additional ideas came out to make it better/bigger or perhaps just more “over the top”. Some suggestions were good, others were wacky, and at some point I had the realization of just how fast three minutes went by. At some point I just had to say “we only have 3 minutes, I don’t think it’ll work.”

Editing

With the video shot and out of the way we now had to edit it. Editing programs, to my knowledge, were only a thing of tv studios so we had to resort to hooking up the camcorder to an old school VCR. I’d hit record on the VCR and then play on the tape.

Once I copied my first segment to the tape, I had to pause the VCR, fast forward the camcorder to the Australians first segment, hit record, press play, and then hit pause on the VCR, stop on the camcorder, rewind the camcorder to my second segment, hit record, press play, and so on. If that last sentence sounds confusing, that’s because it was. Not only was it confusing for us, but apparently for the VCR. After a VCR is on hold for some allotted internal time, it shuts off. When this happens the tape in the VCR has “mini spasms” and adjusts itself to something. When turned back it, it goes through mini-spasms again to cue up. If we took too long to rewind/fast forward and the VCR shut off, queuing it up would cause us to record over previous material.

It appeared we were sunk as we could never get it to queue up right.

Luckily, being a man of resources and connections, Josh had a friend who had editing software. We scheduled a time to go by.

We loaded all the video into his computer and then he cut/pasted the different segments and put them in the correct order. This took quite awhile as it ate up a lot of resources on his computer.

That took a few hours. Then we had to render the video so it could be output in the proper format. Rendering a simple 3-minute video took around 30 minutes. I was shocked! It goes to show how far technology has come in that everything we did then can now be filmed on a Smartphone (and probably edited too), edited with fast software, and rendered and output in minutes.

The Waiting Game

Having fulfilled the entry requirements I sent off the package on 30 Nov, 1999. Now the waiting game would come. I had no idea what to expect, if anything at all. No idea how long it would take for a response, nor how that response would come. No idea how many people applied. Didn’t even know of anyone else who applied so I couldn’t compare my waiting game with theirs.

Then one day, after a particularly not good weekend, I came home from work and saw a blinking light on my answer machine. I was pretty sure it was a girl from church who had recently taken to telling me about all her life’s difficulties. I was dreading the phone call.

Lynne Spillman – Casting Director of Survivor

I pressed the play button and this is what I heard from the Casting Director of “Survivor”, Lynne Spillman, who sounds nothing like she looks:

I must have listened to it 15 times. I was ecstatic!

I told the co-worker who tipped me off. He was very excited. “So obviously if they say 5 minutes to 2 hours, then the longer you are there, the better, right?” I agreed.

A week or so later I stopped by my parents house and after visiting with them stopped off at the neighbor’s house. One of the neighbor’s friends was there and we discovered that we both had applied for the show. I explained I had gotten a return phone call and had gotten the package and was preparing for the next step. He said, “yeah, I should be getting a call soon then”.

Preparing for the Interview

With the packet in hand, I was ready to prepare for the interview. I opened it and was disappointed. There were no instructions on what to prepare for. A bunch of paperwork explaining all the diseases you could get on the show, liability waivers, and that’s it.

“What do I do now?” I asked myself.

I’d read plenty of stuff on how to prepare for interviews: show up early, look neat, know about the company and its players, have an idea of what they are doing, ask informed questions, updated resume, and so on.

So, I prepared for that kind of an interview. I did research on Borneo (where the first season was held), their climate, currency, local customs, and so on. That took all of 15 minutes. Guess, I’ll just wait until the day of the interview.

Day of the Interview

On Wednesday, 12 January 2000 I finished my part-time shift and drove to the local CBS affiliate where interviews were held. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous. I still had no idea what to expect. I got there in the early afternoon waiting in the parking lot and looked for people who looked like they might be coming out of the interview so that I could ask them about it. No one seemed to fit that pre-conceived profile so I went inside.

They showed me to a room and there were people sitting around a long table, looking over their paperwork, looking at the table, or staring off into space. Here’s the breakdown from talking to them:

• Male from Wyoming, former firefighter
• Female from Tacoma Washington, firefighter
• Male from Ogden, Utah, unknown occupation
• Male from Idaho, student
• Female from Washington/Canadian border, unknown occupation
• Female from Provo, Utah, masseuse
• Male from Utah, unknown occupation
• Female from Utah, unknown occupation

I pulled up an empty seat and sat down. My interview was scheduled for 3:30 p.m. although I wasn’t called in until around 4:10.

After a few minutes the door on the other end of the room opened and a guy walked out with a very confused “what the heck just happened” look on his face. It was a mix of deer-in-the-headlights with PTSD with just-got-dumped look.

I took this as a good sign. He obviously failed and therefore was no longer competition.

I took a minute to size up the competition and asked them where they were from. One guy drove over from Wyoming. Another girl flew down from Seattle. One was from Idaho. Another from Southern Utah. They had all taken vacation time to be there, some at significant personal expense. I didn’t want to tell them I lived just down the road and didn’t even have to take time off.

They called a girl in and the door closed.

After a few minutes the girl loudly replied, quite shocked “you can’t ask me that?” Everyone was startled.

Another few minutes went by and she came out with that same “what the heck just happened” look on her face. Another one bites the dust!

After waiting awhile I had to go to the bathroom, I passed through a lounge area, passed an attractive blonde lady sitting there talking on her cell phone, and went to the bathroom. When I came back she was still there, and I thought nothing about it and went back to the waiting room.

My Turn

Everyone else who came out of the room had the same “what the heck just happened” look on their face. I was feeling confident.

Finally, it was my turn.

They called me in and had me sit on a stool against the window. In front of me was a camera, behind it a cameraman, and to one side an attractive blonde and to the other an attractive brunette.

The attractive blonde lady happened to be the lady in the break room. She recognized me and asked, “don’t you work here?” (which would be in clear violations of the rules as CBS employees can’t be on the show).

“No,” I replied, “I was just using the restroom and passed you in the break room.”

I hope this doesn’t screw me over, I thought to myself.

They gave me a placard with “39” on it. and then stated my name and then the “interview began.

Blonde: Why do you want to be on survivor?
Me: It sounds like a great opportunity. I lived in the Dominican Republic for 2 years and I think I’d be used to the conditions.
Brunette: What three adjectives would your best friend use to describe you?
Me: Creative, humorous, and intelligent.  (NOTE: This is where the “traditional” interview ended and things started to go south).
Blonde: Do you have a girlfriend?
Me: No.
Blonde: What do you look for in a girlfriend?
Me: Spiritual, religious, good sense of humor.
Brunette: Have you ever had a one-night stand?  (NOTE: I think this is the question that caused the girl previously mentioned to scream out “you can’t ask me that?”
Me: No.
Blonde: Are you a religious person?
Me: Yes, I am.
Blonde: What religion?
Me: I’m a member of the LDS or Mormon church.
Brunette: Do you drink, have premarital sex, or use drugs?
Me: (stunned) Uh, no, I don’t believe in that. I think it’s not only wrong but unhealthy. Although while visiting Brazil I was at a club and asked for water and this girl gave me a drink. Before drinking I continued asking her if it was water. She said ‘yes’, so I took a drink. It wasn’t water.
Blonde: Since you don’t do those things, how do you refrain since everyone is doing it?
Me: Since I’ve never done those things, it’s really a non-issue.
Brunette: Did you tell your parents about your one drink in Brazil?
Me: No. Not only did they not need to know but it’s none of their business. Not that I’m trying to hide anything but it was a one-time thing.
Brunette: While on Survivor, if a girl said “have sex with me or I’ll vote you out”, what would you do?
Me: I wouldn’t do it. It’s not worth a million dollars. And besides, what’s to say that even if we did have sex that she wouldn’t turn on me and vote me out. Just not worth it.
Blonde: If someone was stealing your food or the groups rations on the island, how would you deal with it?
Me: We’d definitely have to say something to them and if it didn’t stop we’d have to get rid of them.
Brunette: If there was a witch in the group casting spells on people, sun, moon, rocks, et cetera, what would you do?
Me: I don’t believe in that stuff. It wouldn’t effect me but I probably wouldn’t choose to be around that person either.
Blonde: Would you share your religion with her?
Me: Of course. I wouldn’t shove it down her throat but I’d share.
Blonde: It says here you like U2.
Brunette: What if we told you Bono (of U2) did drugs? And that they worshiped the devil.
Me: He doesn’t. Another member of the band had some problems in the past but that’s behind them now.
Blonde: What’s your favorite U2 song?
Me: ‘Where the Streets Have No Name’.
Blonde: Why do you want to be treasurer? (Note: This was in reference to which public position I would hold if I could).
Brunette: Yeah, it says here that you LOVE money and that you obsess about it and love to throw it on the bed and roll around in it.
Me: I never said that. I just like working with money and am interested in how to grow it.
Blonde: What one luxury item would you take with you?
Me: A journal so that I could write down notes and strategize.

Everything seemed to stall at that point. I sat there confused while they jotted some notes down.

Blonde: Okay, well thanks for your time.
Me: What are the next steps?
Brunette: We’ll let you know.

They opened the door for me and much like those before me, I too, left the room with the same “what just happened?” look on my face.

I waited and hoped and prayed that I would hear back from them. I never did.

The blonde very much played “good cop” while the brunette played the edgier “bad cop” trying to get me riled up. I have never had an interview like that, neither up to that point nor since then. They definitely know what they’re doing to try to make good TV.

Waiting

I went back and reported to my friend at work. He seemed to think it went okay, but then again he wasn’t there. We talked about the religious angle and figured I should have played up the Mormon role a little more and been rather “hard-core” Mormon at that.

It’s pretty apparent that reality shows want to create conflict and put together people of various personalities that might not meet under other conditions. I think they were looking at me to fit the “religious” group. Since reality TV was so new at this time, I think this was my best shot. There have been Mormons on “Survivor” and on other reality TV shows. What once was new is now more commonplace.

I think I missed my “Mormon” moment to get onto a reality TV show. But

Blacklisted?!?

Since then I’ve submitted many more video applications, and perhaps to my detriment.

The 1st season was a hit and so I decided to apply to the second season. At the end of the 1st season, Jeff Probst mentioned to submit Survivor applications for Australia. I knew I had to have an Australian theme.

My co-worker, an equally avid fan, helped me out.

As you can see, I wrestled a crocodile and ate HUATAFLUMA worms.

I only make that point because, in an article in the March 1-7, 2003 issue of TV Guide called “How to Get on a Reality Show”, in the section called “Don’t Go Overboard” says:

“We’ve seen it all. What gets my attention is if you sit down in front of a camera, look straight into it and tell me about yourself…People wresting crocodiles, skydiving, eating gummy worms…we keep seeing that same stuff.”

 

That was in 2003. My video submission was from 2000. She was talking about me! Perhaps chastising me, perhaps telling me they really wanted me, but that I had to cut out the antics.

Somewhere after the second season, I grabbed the recording above and dialed the number. Since I had “insider” knowledge of the timeframe I used this to my advantage. I called and left a message indicating that I still hadn’t got the introductory package and was worried that it wouldn’t arrive in time for my interview.

My goal and hope and desperate attempt was to hope they’d call me and if not perhaps go back to audition videos and see what a great guy they overlooked. Now, many seasons later, I think it had the opposite effect. I think when they receive(d) my applications it’s ‘flagged’ and tossed.

Now what?

Now that I’m blacklisted, what do I do? How do I get on the show? Well, I’ve submitted a few video applications here and there but I’ve stopped putting so much work into them. Instead of the 3 hours of video trimmed down to 3 minutes, some of my applications have been sitting down in front of a camera and recording for almost 3 minutes. Stop. Review. Perhaps repeat two or three times. Then filled out the paperwork and ship it off.

I’ll still watch. I’m compelled to because it’s compelling. Some seasons are better than others. Some contestants are awesome, whereas others really suck. But, I feel very much tied and invested to the show, much like a parent is to their child.

What you can do?

In the same TV Guide article, Tad Frank of casting from Temptation Island 3, said of casting that “10 percent is videotape, 30 percent at casting calls and 60 percent recruiting”.

My suggestions if you want to try out are:

1. Be yourself on video. Don’t try to be who you think they want you to be.
2. 3 minutes may seem like a lot of time but it’s not.
3. Submit your application early.
4. Read all the instructions and follow them.
5. Don’t suck!