Survivor Tocantins | knoxville.com - Knoxville’s ‘Survivor: Tocantins’ contestant: I am not a villain!

knoxville.com - Knoxville’s ‘Survivor: Tocantins’ contestant: I am not a villain!

February 5th, 2009 | by cwalton |

Quoting from knoxville.com - Tele-buddy’s Tinseltown Tales

Ben Wade on Survivor Tocantins
Knoxville native Benjamin Wade, in his first local interview, says he doesn’t like the reputation he’s getting even before the first episode of “Survivor: Tocantins” airs. And, his intention going into the game was to be honorable, not sneaky and backbiting. Before Wade started officially playing ‘Survivor: Tocantins — The Brazilian Highlands,’ host Jeff Probst compared Wade to Richard Hatch, the first ‘Survivor’ winner and perhaps its most notorious. Wade says Probst called him “arrogant,” implying Wade might be underhanded in his game playing. Wade has also been compared to Ace Gordon, one of the vilest from last fall’s “Survivor: Gabon.” Probst’s opinion came from pre-game interviews and other data collected on Wade before the game began.

“That kind of offends me,” Wade told me, “because my approach to the game was the absolute opposite. I absolutely detested how they played the game.”

A worldwide traveler and avid kayaker, Wade says he wanted to make “Survivor” a game about a “noble warrior,” not who’s the biggest manipulator.