Survivor.com Goes To The Survivor Finale

December 16th, 2008 | by cwalton |

It was at the CBS studio in Los Angeles this season, which is about a half hour from where I live, so I attended. I brought an assistant to run the video camera for me on the red carpet.

We arrived early. The guard made sure we were on the list, then told us where to park and to “wait with those people over there”. It was a cold Los Angeles evening, which I know those of you who live up north will laugh at, but it was in the 50s. Freezing!

There was a crowd milling around, but we got signed in and got our wrist bands. Again, we were told to “go over there, around the corner”. As we turned the corner, we walked by a large fiberglass boulder, sitting on a forklift. I love TV. We milled around for a while longer before being put into a green room, which was not “The” green room, where the survivors would be, and it wasn’t green, but there was food and TVs.

The football game was running long.

We talked. I meet other press types, people that I read and people I’ve never heard of. Alison Sweeney, the girl who hosts Biggest Loser walked right by me. One the other press members pointed out the casting director for Survivor. If you like who’s on the show, she put them there. We saw Alexis Jones, from Micronesia and Fans vs. Favorites walk through.

Finally, we could go into the studio. We found our seats at the top of the audience, on the left as you look at the stage. Everything on stage was much smaller than I expected. Just enough room to do what needed to be done. There was a camera for Jeff inside the hut on the left. 3 cameras to the right for the survivors, and 2 boom cameras over the audience. A well oiled machine. A very cold, well oiled machine. I felt the air conditioning on me, even though it was 50 degrees outside.

Alexis was sitting right behind us. I was a huge fan of hers. She was always the nice one, so she got voted off too soon. We talked to her and she was very, very nice. Much more gracious than I would be if I was famous.

She talked about how she was a fan of the show and how much she enjoyed being on it. Some other people who were on her shows might complain when things got tough, but she would get excited over every little thing, even when they’d get tree mail. “We’re getting tree mail! woooo!”, even while the others thought “so what?”. She was very excited to be on Survivor.

We watched the show on TV show on big screens. During commercial breaks, there was a “warm up” guy telling jokes and making us applaud, not because he was funny, he just told us to applaud. Kidding!

During one commercial break, I went out the bathroom and found myself walking next to Bob’s wife, Peggy. I introduced myself and told her I was a huge fan of Bob’s and “Old Guys Rule!”. She said she was a fan of this site and she was very nervous. She was VERY nice and gracious in a stressful situation. If you’re reading this, Peggy, Hello from the big guy with long hair and the blue cap!

Sitting in our seats, we saw Mark Burnett walk in and talk to some people, then leave after a bit.

Finally, we were getting close. The final three came out and took their places. The fires magically started. The lights came, the commercial was over and Jeff Probst walked out on stage. Big cheer!

They read the votes, the crowd went wild. It was very strange to actually be watching them read those votes. They went to commercial. Suddenly, there was a large set of seats and the rest of the survivors walked out and get arraigned.

Lights up and we’re back. Jeff did a great job at getting people to talk and to shut up. I noticed that some would talk on and on, while others were tough. I have to say that Bob seemed stunned by it all. He had nothing to say for most of it. Kenny had too much to say. Randy, the star of the show, didn’t have much to say either. It was a tough crowd to interview, but Jeff was amazing. I noticed when he would kindly tell people to shut up, but in a very gracious way. The guy deserves the money he makes for hosting the show. It’s harder than it looks.

You saw that show, so I won’t go back over what was said. We really did boo Corrine with no prompting four times. After the show, people milled about. The survivors hugged friends and family, then slowly disappeared backstage.

We went out to the red carpet room and waited. The Gabonese dancers came in and played music while a mass of photographers flashed, taking photos of Bob, who stood along like a nervous prom king. Then Sugar came in and there were more photos. Each survivor had a handler and they were being moved around and told where to stand and what to do. More photos and more photos. The professionals had huge lights. I can’t compete with CBS and ET. They got the best shots.

I got a few photos and my video guy got what he could, just walking around. They were all being interviewed in depth by everyone else first. We were second from the very end, so we waited. We talked amongst ourselves. We walked around. We took some photos. We waited. Sugar got very close, then got escorted back to someone who missed her the first time around. Sigh. We waited for a long time, then finally gave up. It had been a long day and I was done. We left without an interview, but I’m sure there are plenty other ones to read out there.

It was a fun experience and I plan to do it again next year. I’ll try to bring a different approach to it than the big TV networks and papers do. I really enjoyed it as a fan and as a reporter. Here are my photos from the event.

  Tags: ace, bob, cast, cbs, corrine, dan, jeff probst, ken, mark burnett, randy, sugar, tv, tv show