Surviving the Amazon Reunion

So, Alex, is there anything between the two of you? Probst notes that Alex seemed to move on to next the next girl (Jenna) when Shawna left. Alex says he loves Shawna and she’s awesome, but he doubts they will ever be married – they are good friends.

Probst tells Rob that he was great on the show, but he came across as the guy picked last a lot and who didn’t have much luck with ladies. Is that a fair characterization? Yes. Has his social life picked up? Yes. Rob says he has good news and bad news. He has a girlfriend and she’s great (applause from the audience), but the bad news is she doesn’t believe a word he says (more applause and laughter). Incidentally, Rob later told me that he didn’t bring his girlfriend to the finale. Rob, Rob, Rob! What were you thinking?!

Probst says that when the producers decided to split the tribes by gender, they didn’t count on a split developing between the younger and older women. We see one of the most memorable moments from their camp – the three “cuter” girls bathing. Heidi narrates and we are taken back: “We’re younger and we’re cuter and we have better bodies and for some reason that’s a huge issue with older people.” Probst says wow, where do we start with this? Good question, Jeff.

He asks what started this? Jeanne says she didn’t even know it was going on, because she was working so hard (applause from the audience). Honestly, she says, she was thrown for a loop. Probst asks Heidi what made her say that. She says she came into the game as athlete, but before it even started, people were glaring at her and snicker. She was like, “are you kidding me?” So if they were going to make it into a looks issue then she decided to respond in kind. She says she’s sorry if she offended anybody, but that’s how she felt, constantly being made fun of for being too little, too weak. Oh please. The live audience isn’t buying this as hisses and boos start to spread. On watching the televised show, these cannot really be heard, though.

Heidi continues, saying she wanted be part of Jeanne and Joanna doing stuff but they wanted nothing to do with her. Once again, oh PLEASE. Like anybody stopped her from going out and doing work. Jeanne replies that the glares were not because of her size or beauty – it was because she was not pulling her weight and working (cheers from the audience).

Probst wonders if there is anything to the notion that the younger girls were willing to use their assets. Jeanne says hey, they got a lot farther than her! Was it hard for Jeanne to hear them talk about her that way? Yes, but she watched with friends and family and they judge her the way they want to see her and she loves them. Women over 40 know what they want and are happy with their bodies. She’s very proud of herself.

Probst moves to Deena, saying she was sort of a neutral observer. What’s her take? She says the three of them (Jenna, Heidi, Shawna) were at a clear disadvantage in an all-female tribe. Their biggest assets are beauty and manipulating ability. After the switch, they used those to gain new alliances. It worked for them. It’s what they had and they used it. She says if she’d had it, she’d have flaunted it too. Probst says, “Really?” Deena: “No.” Heh.

Dave is asked why the men got better than the women. He says they have the ability to let minor differences be aired and then move on to something else. That didn’t work so well in the other camp.

Probst asks JoAnna if this is normal in dealing with other women. She replies that it depends on who the women are and what they are all about, inside and outside. Then she lets loose with a “Hallelujah!” Oh please. Go away.

Janet is up next with discussion about the granola bar she was accused of smuggling in. She says she didn’t do it and would take a lie detector test. Probst asks where the accusation came from; Janet points to Jeanne. Jeanne says it was in her bag the day before but also says everybody was using everybody else’s bag. (In my interview with her, Jeanne said that she does not now believe Janet snuck it in.) Probst closes by saying there is no evidence and even Deena couldn’t convict her.

After a commercial, Probst talks to a guy who had his house virtually destroyed by a tornado. He did an interview where said got a generator working so he could watch Survivor. With such dedication, they figured it was only fair to bring him out to see the finale live. More importantly, they are sitting right behind Rudy!

Moving back to the stage (as the cameras lose track of him for a moment), Probst discusses the weather problems. Originally the finale was planned to be outside in Central Park where they had taken a week to set everything up. Then, early the morning of the finale, it was decided to move it inside. They had to tear it all down and set it back up in the Letterman studio.

Getting back to the contestants, one of the most memorable (and I would also add, most well-liked) was Christy. Most of her interaction centered on how different she is from the others. But when she got a letter from home, it showed that in her world, we’re the ones who are different.

She is asked what it was like, overall. She says it’s the toughest game she’s ever played. The biggest challenge. She says she improved, learned, and did awesome. Probst says there were a lot of talks in early Tribal Councils that didn’t end up in show. Early on he reminded her that she was acting like everybody should help her and maybe that wasn’t the way to think about it. When was it she decided to just play? Christy says after JoAnna was voted out, she realized that if she continued to pursue that way of thinking, she’d be voted out. So she figured she’d just play and see how far she could go.