After a gaffe on live TV, Denise Martin must play survivor all over again - The Boston Globe By Don Aucoin

After a gaffe on live TV, Denise Martin must play survivor all over again

DOUGLAS - Denise Martin stood in the doorway of her home and smiled weakly in response to a friend’s solicitous query about her return to work at a local school: “You doing OK? How did it go?”

Martin gave a thumbs-up and replied “Good.” Then she admitted the more complicated truth that was already evident on her face: “It was kind of rough.”

An understatement, that. It has been a wrenching and tumultuous few weeks for the erstwhile “lunch lady” of “Survivor: China” fame, who was thrust into a national spotlight - and then got burned by its glare.

During her stint on the CBS reality show, Martin became something of a folk hero in this small Blackstone Valley community. Residents eagerly tuned in week after week to watch one of their own - a 40-year-old, blue-collar, mullet-wearing mother of three - compete with younger, sleeker, and yuppier con testants on her way to an eventual fourth-place finish. In Douglas and nationwide, viewers accustomed to the deceit and double-dealing of reality TV responded to Martin’s underdog grit and straightforwardness.

Then last month she uttered a few ill-chosen words on the “Survivor: China” live reunion show, and it all went kablooey. Martin erroneously suggested she had been demoted by school authorities after completing her “Survivor” run, when actually she had been promoted before she took part in the show and had returned to that position.

“It was just an honest mistake,” said Martin, her eyes watering slightly as she sat in her kitchen with her dachsund (named Tedy Bruschi) on her lap. “But some people have lost respect for me. They think I’m a liar. . . . I’m not a liar. I’m just a human being.” More… »