Survivors Jilt Jerri
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/04/01/earlyshow/series/survivor/main609867.shtmlNEW YORK, April 2, 2004
Jerri On Her Survivor Ouster
(CBS) A challenge designed to mix up the tribes on "Survivor: All-Stars" amounted to little more than a switch of camps for the castaways. The only person who wound up in a different tribe was Amber, who quickly turned on her old pal, Jerri, with a little help from her new beau, Boston Rob.
At the end of the challenge, Boston Rob went up to Lex and asked him to protect Amber and, in exchange, promised to protect Lex later in the game. In a power move, Lex decided to give up Jerri instead of Amber.
“I was shocked. I never saw the whole Amber twist coming,” Jerri tells The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith, “Lex was really upset that he had to make that power move. And, you know, I told him. I said, ‘Look, you know, don’t trust anybody in this game. You can trust me. 150 percent. I was like you’re getting rid of somebody you can completely trust.'”
And yet she became the 9th person voted of the game. She also was the 9th person voted off Australia. This time around, however, Amber, her friend from the Outback, voted her out.
Jerri says, “There was a moment in tribal council that you didn’t get to see that was a very tender moment between Amber and myself. We hugged each other and I told her, ‘If I’m going to go, it’s almost appropriate that it’s you who did it to me, given what happened in Australia, because we were so close.' I would rather get voted off by somebody I’m very close with. It’s easier to deal with than somebody who hates you.”
Having had a reputation as a black widow, Jerri says her strategy for the “All-Stars” game was to show other players her vulnerable side.
She says, “It was kind of a challenge for me to be softer with everyone, because they were expecting me to show up and...scratch people’s eyes out and very manipulative. I was still playing the game and focused on the prize. But getting to that point for me, the strategy was completely different.”
That is not how she came across on the show. She was seen complaining a lot, which she denies to Smith. And the other women from her tribe (Shii Ann and Kathy) talked ill behind her back.
“That was my biggest moment of 'I’m going to kill somebody,' because they were calling me lazy,” Jerri says, “Anybody who knows me knows I am not lazy. That was the episode that I got up and literally screamed at the TV. They made it look like I was the only one talking about food. I was, like, 'No!'”
To her face, she says, they were sweet, and she notes she tried to make an alliance with them earlier to get rid of Colby.
She says, “We had a full discussion and this was before Richard was gone. Kathy, myself and Shii Ann had a discussion about keeping Richard along and getting rid of Colby at that point. But those two, my experience out there was completely different than what you saw. The two women were saying, just horrible things about me behind my back.”
Jerri's former neighbor from Germany called The Early Show and asked Jerri if she did a happy dance and a jump for joy when she voted Colby off. Jerri answered, "I was very happy to outlast the two people from the first time around that stabbed me in the back. And I know Colby has been out there saying things like, ‘Jerri has been holding a grudge for three years.’ No, get over yourself. It’s not what it was about.”
So what was it about?
Jerri explains, “Good sports analogy. You’re on a basketball team. You play a cool school, like the best in the league, and you lose. And the next time you get to play them, you win. And it’s just a glorious moment. And I was basking in that moment. And it was nothing evil or anything like that. I was just very happy to know that I had done better the second time out with the people that I was with in Australia.”
As for what she thinks of the “All-Stars” game being turned into "The Rob and Amber Show," Jerri told a caller, “We used to call them Romber. I have a hard time watching anybody kissing on that show, just knowing, we’re not hygienically set up out there. I don’t know. I think it’s cute but it’s hard to watch.”
And though she was not in the same tribe with Rob and Amber, Jerri says, “The thing is, when you pair up with someone in an intimate way, you can either really screw yourself or really set yourself up. You know, see what happened with Colby and myself. We had that flirtation thing, and it blew up in my face.”
So what is next for Jerri?
She says, “The last couple of months I've worked on four different films. And I have two other projects coming up. I am in a band now. It's called Mutateor and you can find out where we're playing at mutaytor.com. Playing drums and dancing and learning how to spin fire.”
Wearing perhaps more clothing than she did on the island? “Not really,” she says.
