|
|
 |
|
|
RealityTVPlanet.com sends two to the Survivor Amazon Finale in New York City
Posted by david on 2003-05-14 |
|
The Web Gallery for the Survivor Amazon Finale in New York City
Here is what jg_bama and bellirng had to say about their trip to the Survivior Amazon Finale in New York City.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
jg_bama wrote:
WOW! What an experience. I read belirng's report and she did a GREAT job! I'll try not to overlap too much, but add some details that you haven't gotten yet. First of all, I must say THANK YOU to calvin. Your patience and persistence really paid off. Second to RTVP Rocks! As you heard, our tickets were almost revoked. Even sponsor's tickets were cancelled! But when we asked about our tkts, I was told that they were able to hang on to a few of the web sites seats. They realize that it is all of US that keep them hot!
Well here goes...my report. (I'd be happy to respond to questions as well. I'm sure I'll forget to mention some of the details.)
Sunday afternoon on a whim (on my way to lunch) I decided to walk past the hotel where we were to pick up tickets. I went in the door and practically bumped into T-bird and Jake talking to the production manager of all of the challenges. After leaving a v-mail for belring to get her tail to the hotel, I just jumped right into the conversation. T-bird was my First Survivor to speak to, and she was precious. I mentioned I'd lived in Atlanta, and that I'd been to Africa and we picked up like we were old friends. She was heart-sick that our tickets were nixed and she encouraged me to try to push through anyway. When I told her I was from the website RTVP, she was even more shocked: "They Can't take tickets from the websites! Y'all are the ones that keep us going!"
Then I spoke with Jake and Ginny (his wife) for a good 7-10 minutes. Jake is so genuine, and Ginny is one class act. I was even more impressed seeing how classy she was and knowing that she was willing to eat ANYTHING to be with her husband. She's a trooper. One of the first things Jake mentioned was that his experience was Amazing. He said he'c go back next week if they gave him the chance. He said all you could do was learn more and more about yourself and human nature while you were out there.
Since there were only about 10 of us in the lobby, we just chatted up a storm. Not far behind was Clay - 2:45 and already beer-breath. But he seemed to hold it well What a hoot! He uses the word a** a lot. We were taking a picture and looked behind me and said, "Just want to admit, I noticed your A**! ...At least I told you!" He's just a flirt. His wife was there as well, and we were able to get scoop from her about their visit to the island. Apparently they were given 3 days notice and flown to another island in Thailand. They waited on pins and needles wondering if their Survivor was going to be voted off before the reward challenge where they could seem them! CBS treated them well. They ended up staying in Thailand for about 8 days.
Jan came out and hooted at Clay! I looked over and there was Hunter!!! Looking amazing in gym shorts, t-shirt and tennies. He was getting ready to go for a run. I had to cut in on the girl who was talking to him. T-bird and I talked to him for a minute, then T hustled out to get ready for the festivities. Hunter is sooooo nice! Sad we couldn't get in. Clay suggested that I show up and tell them that I'm Hunter's lover. Hunter mentioned, "If they believed everyone who say that, I'll have a crazy reputation." I suggested that I'd just tell them I'm his date.
I got my picture with him, and asked for his autograph. Want to know what he wrote??? (My heart be still). "Julie - It was so great to meet you! Remember that you are my date to the finale tonight! Hunter Ellis, Survivor Marquesas" Later when I saw him I told him I'd take him up on it. Just after Hunter left for his run, I met up with Laurie. I caught her up on our situation with tickets and filled her in on who I'd seen already. Zoe had already come down and I'd talked to her, so I introduced Zoe to Laurie. Talk about friendly! Zoe's the best. She's got a great attitude and just seemed so grounded. Her autograph said: "Julie, All my best Follow your dreams Be a Survivor! Zoe 2003."
If you can't tell by now, practically everyone was very willing to talk and friendly about taking pictures. Around 4:00, the survivors started coming in droves. Laurie and I were warmed up and ready to go. We got really brave about asking for pictures. Not one person said NO. Although Shawn, Rob, and Cathy (Thailand) promised to come back, but never did.
I met Jed (aka Gabe to Laurie and I - what a mix up!). He was kind of quiet, but willing to talk. What an incredible face he has! Penny was nearby as a newly wed with her new husband. By the way, I was impressed with the "guests" of the survivors. None of them seemed cranky or upset when their Survivor was pulled and tugged constantly away. I suppose they'd been prepped, and were used to it by then.
This is getting long, so I'm going to summarize some of the details I got from individuals as I talked to them:
John (nurse) - Wearing Reebok attire - their's was the last show that had Reebok as a sponsor
Penny - beautiful - didn't have her make up on when I first spoke to her, but since that's the only way I saw her on TV, she looked normal. Sweet
Roger (S1) - wasn't as outgoing as I expected, but was the gentleman that I expected. Got to talk to his friend (guest) who tends to travel with him a bit. Forgot his name, but he is from Roger's church and they're good friends.
Richard Hatch is Really TALL! I didn't realize how tall he was (I would guess around 6'2 or 6'3". Looks really sharp still. Although he's been doing this the longest of everyone, he was still relatively nice.
Jake - When he came back down (after getting ready for festivities), he came up to me and said "Julie!" and gave me a hollywood kiss! I introduced him to bellrng and he kissed her too! By that time we found out that we were in, and he was thrilled and gave me a high five.
Tanya (Marquesas) was beautiful and very genuine. She'd just come back from Chinatown (bargain shopping), but she talked to us for a minute. When she first met us, she said, "Now do I know you?" There are so many people that they meet. I assured her she didn't.
I'm going to skip over to the line: Once we got into the building, and were given our wrist bands, they passed out BUFFS to all of us. I was going to give mine to Calvin (least I could do), but bellrng was kind enough to ask for a second one that we could give to him.
We got to our seats (it's always best to get a second opinion on better seats!) and they were staging the production. Since they had rearranged the entire set (much smaller) from a 1200 person audience to 450, and from large stage to Small stage, they were doing final rehearsals late. For those of you who have wondered: Jeff Probst and Mark Burnett are NOT the same person! I saw them both in the room at the same time.
We watched the entire 2 hour finale on 2 televisions propped above our heads (not big screens), then as they brought out the Survivors, it was interesting to see how Tight Matt and Jenna seemed. It didn't look like an act, it looked real. Verrrrrryyyy comfortable. He kept his arm draped over her shoulders, and her hand was resting across his thigh. They kept holding hands as well. (We thought Jenna may have been still playing the game just to be sure she had the money in the bag...regardless of if she got the votes!)
I don't know what he looked like on TV, but Matt looked HOT in person. So glad he got rid of his goatee. Much better.
After the show, belirng and I scooted downstairs, and walked out the building. People had cameras poised and ready-wondering if we were famous. LOL We stood right on the front row of the sidelines as everyone came out. Since we'd gotten most of our photos at the hotel, we were less stressed about catching everyone.
Now the Most important thing (to me): THANK YOU BELLRNG! She saved the day when she saw Ethan standing behind us! All night I'd had no problem talking to the Survivors, but once I was in a picture with Ethan, I was speechless. Felt like a 13 year old adolescent w/a crush on the cutest boy in school. Laurie to the rescue when she pushed me back in there and got him to give me a hug. When Amber asked him, he said "Sure. Hugs are free." (Loved the scruffy cheek!) When we were talking to Amber, I mentioned my love of Africa, and she mentioned that Ethan's been back several times with his Non-profit organization that he founded. He really loves it there too.
Our other Great catch was after we'd been standing over an hour in the mist. Jeff Probst came out the front door. He stood for a few photo opps. I was looking at him with my camera up, and he stopped and smiled, but I asked "Could I get a picture of you with Laurie?" He said sure. Then as I was about to get a picture, 2 girls thrust their cameras at me to take a picture of them with him. Again, I looked at him and I said, "Sure if I can get one too." (Jeff was needing to leave.) He said, Of course. Very patient. Very nice. Very gorgeous. Wow. That was another of my favorite pictures. (Can you tell I love those nice men!?! Nice goes a long way with me.)
This is way too long. Sorry for dragging on. (I'm still leaving out so many details!) To wrap it up, bellrng and I went to the side door (the Amazon survivors were going out that door!). We barely caught Matt, Rob, and Jenna. Rob was totally into the photo/autograph thing, and finally had to be dragged away (he was good to the fans). Matt had no time, and Jenna rushed through and when someone called out "Jenna!" She didn't look up, but as she was climbing into the limo, she yelled "Thanks everyone!" That was it.
From there, bellrng and I decided we wouldn't try to sneak into the private Survivor party. It was past midnight and we'd been breaking out of our comfort zones for a long time. We'd pretty much seen, stood, photographed, etc. as much as we could for one night. It's funny, when I first saw bellrng, I mentioned to her that I was pretty shy. I guess "shy" went out the door pretty quickly. Fun night! I hope others get to share the experience next Survivor!
To answer a couple of your questions:
Matt and Jenna looked tight (even though they didn't leave together) throughout the show. Especially when they came out onto the stage. They were holding hands...fingers interlocked. He kept his arms around her shoulders. Knees were always angled towards each other. Very natural.
Did many of the people know our website? T-bird definitely did. Most of them would respond positively, regardless. I think some of them may have confused us with another website called "RealityTV"...who had several representatives at the show. I asked about 6 of the Survivors if they were familiar with us, and 5 of the 6 said they were.
Did I forget the questions I was supposed to ask? I didn't ask all of the questions to everyone, but I tried to include them in at least one or two conversations so I could get different opinions. Sometimes it just didn't fit into the conversation.
What about the granola bar? The rumor was that it was probably just a plant. No one thought that it was brought over, but they considered it could have been put there to cause electricity.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
bellirng wrote:
All right, to be logical, I’ll just start where the fun began. At 2:45, I listened to a voice mail message left by JG_Bama . I was supposed to meet her at 3:00 p.m. The message said something along the lines of “I’m at the Park Central Hotel. I’ve seen so many people. You need to get here. “ So I immediately went to the Park Central Hotel.
As soon as I arrived at the hotel, I had no trouble picking out JG_Bama . She looked like her picture. Her hair was a little different, but not enough to make a difference. JG_Bama sadly informed me that they had to move the finale inside, and it didn’t look like we were going to get tickets. It was, of course, disappointing, but then I started seeing Survivors everywhere!!! And of course, we did end up getting the tickets!!!!
First off, I was surprised to see Neleh, Survivor Marquesas. I told her I was from Reality TV Plant, and, of course, had to do some explaining about how we get together and talk about all of the reality TV shows that we love. I then proceeded to tell her about Calvin’s crush and that he said “HI”. We talked for a little while longer. We talked about how JG_Bama and I were probably not going to be able to attend the show. She was hopeful that we would be able to attend. She was quick to offer up where the cast of Survivor Amazon was staying, but we were afraid to leave our good spot. I told her how nice it was to meet her, and she said the same about me (HA HA), and as she was walking away she turned around and said “Tell that guy I said HI”. I was quite proud of myself having accomplished my goal for Calvin so early in the evening. I went to tell JG_Bama about my good fortune only to have her tell me that it was not Neleh it was PENNY (Thailand)!!! Boy did I feel stupid!!! I know Penny and Neleh look nothing alike. I guess my mind just wasn’t working very well at that point. Oh well, Calvin, I’m sorry!!! Anyway, Penny said “HI”. She was very friendly. I loved her accent.
T-Bird (Theresa, Africa) was definitely the nicest and friendliest. By the time you were done talking to her, you felt like you were old friends. She was on her way through with her hands full when I asked for a picture. I didn’t care about all of the things in her hands, but she insisted that she put it all down for the picture. She gave me a big ole hug for the picture. It’s one of the best pictures I have. She also insisted that everyone call her T-Bird. She had talked to JG_Bama before, and expressed her concern and her hope that we would be able to attend the show, and even remembered JG_Bama ’s name (No not JG_Bama, JULIE). She was great!!!
It’s hard to keep them all straight. You would see someone and be like . . . “Who’s that?” . . . “that’s . . . “. Then finally it would come to you (as you will see, sometimes later rather than sooner).
We talked to Clay (Thailand) and his wife. They were both very friendly. Clay’s wife said that the cast of Survivor Thailand all keep in touch through email, and she’s usually the one keeping in touch – not Clay. She talked about how well everyone from the Thailand cast got along and that she wasn’t sure how the cast of the Amazon would end up getting along with all of the lying and backstabbing that had gone on in this series.
Upon meeting Jake (Thailand) he gave me a kiss on the cheek. He is very handsome, but we all already knew that. Obviously he was very friendly. His wife, Jenny, was there too. She was also very friendly (but no kiss). I know, I know, -- I’m saying they were all friendly – well all of them were (well almost all of them!!!) Jake talked to us about his Ask Jake section on Survivor-Central. I might just have to go in there and drop him a line!
Helen (Thailand) was nice, although she didn’t seem as outgoing as the others. JG_Bama asked her if they were required to be there. She said no, they came because they wanted to. I did overhear someone saying that Helen didn’t look anything like she did on the show. That she was in fact “HOT”, well I didn’t find that to be the case, but she was nice. We talked about how much weight everyone lost on the show, and she stated that on her application the reasons she listed for wanting to be on the show were 1) $1,000,000 (which seemed very obvious to her), and 2) “I could stand to lose a few pounds.”
Jan (Thailand) was . . . well JAN. She smelled (there’s a smell just for you Peaches) of alcohol – I know you are all shocked! J She was very concerned that her braids were going to tip her over backwards. HA HA! I told you, Jan was JAN.
I had a picture taken with Gabe after calling out his name. Or at least I thought that’s who it was at that time. Later while waiting for the show to start, I was thinking about it; and I realized it wasn’t Gabe at all, it was JED. I whispered to JG_Bama . She checked her autographs (she had thought it was Gabe too) and sure enough, it was Jed. OOPS!!! We were both fooled on that one.
While still at the hotel, Clay had gone to the camera store across the street to buy a battery. Apparently the guy at the camera store recognized him and had a great deal just for him. Clay was able to purchase a $200 lens for $50. Hey Clay, I could sell you lots of stuff!!! Regardless, Clay was happy with his great new lens so I guess that’s all that mattered. JG_Bama asked him how the lens affected the battery, but I don’t believe she got an answer to that one.
Hunter (Marquesas) was great. He had just returned to the hotel from a run, but he was still very friendly to everyone. I had a picture taken with him (after he showered). Hunter was with his sister, who is gorgeous!!!
Carl and Frank (Africa) were together. Frank (Africa) was surprisingly friendly. They had to get back to their rooms because Frank’s wife is pregnant and Carl’s wife was babysitting. Apparently, they had said they’d only be gone for 10 minutes. They still talked for a while and took a lot of pictures. They said they’d left their wives for 10 minutes before and had it turn into hours.
Peter (Marquesas) and his wife were very nice. Peter talked about how he spent his time after he was voted out. I’m sure JG_Bama remembers more about the details. Anyway, JG_Bama said that it must have been hard being voted out and not being able to go home. He said he had a great time!!! His wife, however, said it was very hard.
Now it’s going to get a little choppy. There were a lot of survivors that I didn’t talk to for very long, but I don’t want to leave them out so here is a quick run down of some of the brief encounters.
Boston Robb and Sean (Marquesas) were too busy to be bothered when they first arrived, but I did manage to squeeze in a picture with Robb (he’s one of my youngest son's favorites).
Alicia (Outback) was in quite a hurry, but she did stop long enough to take a picture, and she did call me “sweetie”. I really like Alicia, so I’m hoping she was just in a hurry.
Of course, Richard Hatch (do I need to say which one?) seemed arrogant but he did take some pictures with us.
Ted, Zoe (Thailand) and Rodger (Outback) were all friendly.
Shii Ann (Thailand) seemed a bit shy. Tanya (Thailand) was great. They arrived together. Tanya was very pretty and seemed easy going.
We discovered that Mitchell (Outback) had had a comedy show the night before and several of the survivors had attended.
Paschal (Marquesas) obviously thought that I was someone else because he gave me a great big hello.
Tina (Outback) was very very short. Much shorter than I expected.
Rudy Boesch was quiet but friendly.
So now we decided that we better get to the David Letterman Theatre. We stopped at a little café to get something to eat while in line, and we spotted Richard, Sonja, and their guests eating together. We were a little surprised, it didn’t seem to suit Richard Hatch!!!
While waiting in line for the show, we discovered that the lady in front of us was the daughter of the inventor of the Magic 8 Ball (which was invented in Cincinnati, OHIO!!!). She was there with a bag of Magic 8 Balls for Rob!! (We saw her after the show and apparently, she had met up with Rob. She was able to get a picture with him, and she was going to send him an 8 Ball. I guess he got quite a kick out of it.)
We were taken to our seats, which were terrible. There was equipment in front of us, and we were way over on the left side. However, the lady that seated us didn’t know who she was dealing with. JG_Bama was able to finagle much better seating, in the center aisle!!! WOO HOO!! WAY TO GO JG_BAMA !!!
Mark Burnett welcomes us all there, and asks us to be quiet so they could continue to rehearse. There were stand-ins for all of the survivors. They had big signs around their necks with pictures of who they were supposed to be. Some of the audience thought they were giving away the final 2 because in the seats for the final two were the stand-ins for Butch and Rob. I didn’t buy Butch for one second. They rehearsed the questions (I don’t know if it was the actual questions and answers or not. We couldn’t hear it). The also rehearsed congratulating the winner. (All of this was going on during the showing of the final episode.)
Between breaks, the ladies next to us were talking about how sometimes when Jeff tallies the votes, it can take up to 20 minutes.
Finally, it’s time!!!! All the survivors come out on stage. Everything is very fast.
The contestants may not have known the exact questions, but they definitely knew the general area of the questions because on commercial breaks, Jeff would go through what was still to be discussed. We couldn’t hear every word, just bits and pieces.
Richard had something smart to say about Jeff’s comment about Rob being the smartest player to not win the game because as soon as they went to commercial break, someone shouted something, and then Jeff said “Was that Hatch?” The laughter that followed seemed to support that.
After the show, we were waiting outside for some of the Survivors to come out. After waiting for awhile, I happened to look behind me and caught a glimpse of ETHAN. I whispered to JG_Bama (for those of you who don’t know ETHAN IS THE BOMB TO JG_BAMA !!!). We both had our pictures with Ethan. While everyone else was around Ethan, there was the girl he was with standing all alone. I realized it was none other than Amber (Outback). She was beautiful. The whole time I was talking to her no one, other than JG_Bama and I, recognized her or talked to her. She said that she never gets recognized.
After the show, Kathy was leaving the auditorium and someone shouted “I think you should have won Kathy”. With a cute little expression she replied “I think so too.”
While waiting, we saw Shawna’s twin. I was very surprised, from the show, Shawna would have been the one I picked as the prettiest, but up close, I didn’t think she was very pretty. (I only saw her twin up close, but I think since it’s her twin, I can make that statement.)
After walking away, I asked JG_Bama if she had gotten a hug from Ethan. She hadn’t so we had to turn around. I asked Ethan if JG_Bama could have a hug. He said sure, but then others interrupted us. After he finished with them, he turned to hug someone, but he was lost. Then some other people interrupted. I asked Amber for help, so when they were ready to leave, with Amber’s assistance, JG_Bama got her hug!!!!
Ok, now for some overviews.
Survivors Spotted
Survivor Pulau Tiga
Richard
Rudy
Sonja
Susan (I saw her, but I didn’t talk to her.)
Survivor Outback
Alicia
Amber
Keith (didn’t talk to him)
Kimmi (didn’t talk to her)
Mitchell (didn’t talk to him, but apparently he performed at a comedy club and many of the other survivors attended)
Rodger
Tina
Survivor Africa
Carl
Ethan
Frank
Kim J. (didn’t talk to her very much)
Teresa (T-Bird)
Survivor Marquesas
Hunter
Kathy
Paschal
Neleh
Peter
Rob
Sean
Zoe
Survivor Thailand
Clay
Helen
Jake
Jan
Ken (didn’t see him, but apparently he was there)
Penny
Jed
Robb (didn’t see him, but apparently he was there)
Shii Ann
Tanya
Ted
Friendliest – Definitely – TBIRD!!!! Although everyone was so nice!!! Jake, Penny, Tanya and Clay were also at the top of the list.
Most Arrogant --Although you would think that the most arrogant would have to be Richard Hatch, in my opinion, you would be wrong, that award goes to Sean Rector, (Marquesas). Maybe he was just having a bad day, but he didn’t have time for anyone. Actually, he didn’t even have time for a smile.
Prettiest – by far, Amber (Outback). Although I didn’t care for her hootchie outfit. A close second would have been Tanya (Thailand).
Most hurried - Alicia
Quietest – Rudy
Most soft spoken – Ethan
What impressed me most about the survivors was that they really seemed interested in knowing about us. They would ask where we were from, and actually seem to care. There were people there who had met them before, and they treated them like old friends. There was a great sense of camaraderie between the survivors, whether they were from the same cast or not. It was a wonderful experience that I will never forget. I had a ball!!!! Thanks so much Calvin for making this possible. I hope that in the future we can get tickets to more things like this for others to experience!!!! The only things that could have made this any better for me would have been if all my friends from the board could have been there to share it, COLBY being there, and of course -------- BRAD PITT!!! (Now what did you think I would say!!!)
I’m sure I will think of more things to tell you all later, but I really wanted to at least get something up for you to see. I want to share this wonderful experience with you as much as I can!!! Feel free to bombard me with questions. I have developed my pictures, but I don’t have a scanner at home. I will start scanning tomorrow at work, just don’t tell my boss!!! JG_BAMA has digital pictures too!!! |
|
|
|
|
