Surviving the Early Show: Stephannie’s Interview

We’re introduced to the Stephannie segment on The Early Show by looking back at the various scenes we saw Thursday night showing the chain of events leading to her ouster. First, she mentioned that part of her wanted to leave and has some mashed potatoes and gravy, which Nate said was a comment that was icing on the cake for him and he relayed it to just about everybody, and then Parvati told Stephannie about it – but to no avail, as she was voted off.

The host tells Stephannie she showed a lot of class in leaving, wishing them good luck, etc. Stephannie thanks her and says that’s just how she is. So, did Stephannie really want mashed potatoes that bad? She says they were all talking about food, so that one statement was blown out of proportion.

The host thought Stephannie and Nate were close – what happened? Stephannie thought they had “Hiki love” from their original tribe, but obviously they weren’t as close as she thought. The host tries to get Stephannie to say she blames Nate for her getting voted off, but she says no, she takes full responsibility for her own actions in that she planted the seed the week before.

They discuss how she had admitted to being the weak link before, does Stephannie think they just hadn’t gotten over that? Yes, she does. She voiced it in a moment of weakness, but she gave a speech to the tribe that we didn’t see and, in her mind, she was forgiven. She thinks, though, that Nate spreading her comment around “reopened the wound.”

Stephannie thinks that Nate may have been upset with her because she voted out Sekou waaaaay back in the first week. “Perhaps it was some type of retaliatory act,” but at this point it doesn’t matter.

But was she surprised that it wasn’t Cristina because she was bossy and getting on people’s nerves? Stephannie says yes, they all came back from the challenge knowing Cristina was going home. Then all of a sudden, it was her!

They all had a close-knit bond and Stephannie says Cristina knew she was leaving. I find that statement a little odd since Cristina was so shocked at the comments about her at Tribal Council. Stephannie says she wanted to specifically tell Cristina she was going, but was told it wouldn’t be a good idea. Stephannie says she’s glad she didn’t, ‘cus she would have looked like an idiot!

This was the third time Stephannie tried out for the show – she’s a real fan. She really wanted to go further, but says it’s unfortunate the “mashed potatoes comment” did her in.

Time for the secret scene. Stephannie tells us in the scene that they got up early and decided to pray to bring them all closer together. She led the prayer, and after that they all felt really good. The others look to her, she says, as somebody who brings hope and encouragement to the tribe.

The host says, “hope and encouragement was not as important as a million dollars,” because Stephannie’s out! She laughs at that and says she only regrets when she said she was the weakest link. There was no way of undoing that damage.

So that was Stephannie’s few minutes on The Early Show. But as soon as it was over, it was my turn to talk to her and ask the questions we really want to know about! So make sure to click over to my interview with Stephannie now to read all about it!

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out these other recent Survivor: Cook Islands articles here on RealityNewsOnline:

David Bloomberg is the Editor of RealityNewsOnline and can be reached at RNO@pobox.com.

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