Backstage Interview With Survivor’s Ethan Zohn and Katie Couric

Here is a video of  Survivor: Africa’s Ethan Zohn and Katie Couric in the green room, backstage at Larry King Live. Ethan is currently the ambassodor of Stand Up to Cancer, and is courageously battling stage 2 Hodgkins Disease.

Ethan Zohn on Larry King Live Tonight

Ethan Zohn, winner of  the CBS reality show Survivor: Africa will be on CNN’s Larry King Live tonight at 9:00 PM. Ethan will speak about his recent diagnosis of stage 2 Hodgkins disease, and his battle with cancer.

Katie Couric will also appear on the show, speaking about Stand Up to Cancer. Zohn is currently and ambassador for the organization.

Behind the scenes with Sierra Reed, the 10th castoff from “Survivor: Tocantins”

By Jim Kelly

“People misjudged me from the beginning and I got off to a hard start.”

That’s the day-after self-review from Sierra Reed as she became the 10th player voted off “Survivor: Tocantins” and took to the weekly Fancast “Survivor” chat room that features the latest castoff answering fan questions and providing some behind-the-scenes thoughts on what we don’t always see on the Thursday CBS broadcasts.

Although she said, “I don’t hold a grudge, it’s just a game,” Sierra still seems to have some hard feelings toward Tyson when a fan asked if she had patched things up with Coach and Tyson.

“Tyson doesn’t have patience for females, that’s why he didn’t like me,” Sierra told the chat room. “i think that Tyson doesn’t know me and never tried to get to know me.” When asked to comment on a People magazine article in which Tyson called her “whiny,” Sierra decided to taunt back a little, telling the chatters: “I also think that since I outlasted him, his ego must be hurting!”

Sierra was asked what one thing she would change in how she played the game and her answer revealed the second-guessing on strategy that always takes place among the castoffs: “I wish I would have told Taj that we were still in an alliance and not waited for Brendan to reach out.”

She says things turned for her in the game when Brendan left. “I think they were thinking that if Coach hadn’t won immunity he’d be gone. They didn’t want to leave me and coach together.”

Sierra says she would like either Taj or Stephen to win among the remaining players. She also says the producers represented her fairly in the broadcast, although she wishes “they would have shown more why people wanted me out.”

A few interesting tidbits: she lost 15 pounds during the experience and said when players hadn’t won a reward and were in an immunity challenge, they were STARVING: “So hungry I could eat my hand!” Sierra said the most enjoyable part of being in Tocantins was “the simplicity – no bills, no car, no nothing.”

In the weekly chats, the fans always love to take shots at Coach, and the castoffs are usually happy to agree. Sierra said Coach was as arrogant as he appears on TV, was the most deceptive player – and she wants him gone. She also says he never contributed much: “He would literally tell people what to do, we’d scatter and realize he didn’t give himself anything to do.”

Sierra’s full chat remains online at http://www.fancast.com/blogs/live-chat/live-chat-with-the-latest-booted-survivor-tocantins-castaway/ Just hit the replay button and the transcript will be there.

These lively chats with the latest castoff take place every Friday at 3:30 pm Eastern time/12:30 pm Pacific, so if you want to chat firsthand with the players, get your questions answered, or tell them your own theories about what went down, stop by and get a great perspective on “Survivor:Tocantins” from the contestants themselves.

Time for gratuitous groveling on tonight’s Survivor: Tocatins

 One castaway attempts to pull off a last minute upset with a devious strategic move, while another becomes an outcast and is forced to beg for a second chance, on SURVIVOR: TOCANTINS THE BRAZILIAN HIGHLANDS, Thursday, April 23 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. 

The Phone: Premiere

The Phone
Tuesdays, 10pm on MTV

The estimable Michael Ian Black once said that David Hasselhoff  “somehow manages to step into piles of turds and turn them into gold. He’s done it for 20 years.” The same can be said of Justin Timberlake: boybands, SNL, Britney Spears…everything he touches turns to gold. So when his newly-produced reality show The Phone debuted on MTV tonight, we as a nation were understandably concerned. Would the old magic be there?

We shouldn’t have worried. The Phone completely delivers. I knew Justin “Dance Biscuit” Timberlake wouldn’t let us down.

A muscled-up version of a Dutch TV show, The Phone combines The Amazing Race and the movie Speed into one glorious high-adrenaline rush. The slick production values, beautiful editing, sweeping shots, and likable cast all melds together to create a show that’s exciting as well as emotionally involving.

The premise is simple: two teams compete for a chance to win $50,000 by engaging in a kind of steroidal Clue. In the premier episode, the operator (the buttery voiced Irish actor Emmett J. Scanlan) calls 2 people, asking them if they want to play a game for $50,000. When they opt in by pressing 1, a car explodes. They are given the charge of finding the bomber before he strikes again. Across town, another team is given the same task, with different evidence to follow.

The hunt begins that involves a ticking clock, high speed chases, and puzzling mind game. The show makes the most of its location (the premier takes place in Seattle), with beautiful use of Rem Koolhaas’ Central Library, the Space Needle, Pikes Place and the wharf. The action is about as much reality as your average Survivor challenge: the contestants know there isn’t an actual bomber, they know the challenges aren’t actually putting them in danger. But the time limits are real, the threat of elimination is real, and the threat of the other team is real. This tension, combined with sharp editing, makes the show legitimately exciting and impossible to turn away from.

Interestingly enough, early reviews of the show have been mixed. Phonesreview.co.uk branded it a “rather irritating MTV reality show,” and The Washington Post went even further, calling The Phone “perfectly awful, perfectly horrid, and perfectly insane.” The criticism, I imagine, stems from the fact that the show is edited to look like a good-old-fashioned Hollywood action movie, when in reality the contestants were coached, cajoled, and consulted every step of the way. But this behind-the-scenes context doesn’t make the action any less enjoyable: as the LA Times pointed out, “(like your above-average Hollywood action film) the momentum carries you through the muddy bits and over the plot holes.”

The producers of The Phone have consciously taken the best aspects of almost all reality shows (The Amazing Race, Survivor, Big Brother, The Mole, Road Rules). The result somehow manages to feel fresh, exciting, and new. And with new plots and new locations in New York and Boston, it seems like the Timberlake magic will keep it that way for some time.

A castaway’s chances are in jeopardy when her identity is revealed on Survivor: Tocantins

“The Poison Apple Needs To Go” – An Exile Island twist opens the door for the castaways to play the game like never before, meanwhile the quest for a hidden immunity idol goes terribly wrong leaving two castaways in a tight spot, on SURVIVOR: TOCANTINS – THE BRAZILIAN HIGHLANDS, Thursday, Feb. 19 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT)

Father of Survivor contestant almost dies when boat capsizes

The father of a contestant on the CBS reality show Survivor is lucky to be alive after spending five hours thrashing about in the ocean after being knocked off his boat by a wave.

Coast Guards rescued 55 year old mortgage broker Michael Wilson as he treaded water in the ocean miles northwest of Los Angeles. He had taken the boat out alone in preparation to sell it when a moment of turbulence caused him to fall off the boat.

Wilson, clad only in a long-sleeve shirt and tennis shoes was treated for hypothermia and exhaustion, according to the Associated Press.

Wilson’s son, Jeff, is a personal trainer who was on Survivor: Palau. He was voted off in the third week.

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Survivor: Cook Islands’ Billy Garcia Takes Five On RealityRollCall

Name: Billy Garcia
Home town: New York City
Birthday: April 22
Show(s) you were on: Survivor: Cook Islands

RealityRollCall: Name three things you can’t live without:

Billy: 1. My Family
2. The Truth (Watch Zeitgeist-The Movie)
3. My Freedom
Read more

Survivor: Micronesia Spoilers and Rumors

 

There are some spoilers for the upcoming Survivor All Stars that will be taking place in Micronesia. However, I am not going to post any of them here, because in my opinion it really takes the fun out of everything to have a show spoiled before it has even started.

But I know there are people out there who just love to know what is going to happen before it happens. These are probably the same people who plan their own surprise parties, so they don’t get caught off guard. So, I will post the link so that all of you people who are outraged that Jonny Fairplay made it to Micronesia can find out what ultimately happens to him.

So, go read the Survivor: Micronesia spoilers at TVSquad.com . Go ahead, find out what happens, and ruin all the fun. See if I care.

Fairplay and Deighton Give Birth to a Girl

Jonny “Fairplay” Dalton of Survivor: Micronesia and fiance Michele Dreighton of America’s Next Top Model have given birth to a baby girl, named Piper Addison. The baby weighed in at 6 lbs 8 oz.

You can tune in to watch Fairplay play Survivor with all the zeal and douchebaggery we have all grown to love (or hate) starting February 7 on CBS.

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