Reality TV shows have a local flavor
Rob Owen from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette caught up with Jenna Morasca earlier this month where she talks about her mom and Survivor.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Sunday, December 28, 2003
Morasca won't comment on whether she's a member of the cast for the next "Survivor," which premieres Feb. 2 after the Super Bowl (CBS will announce the cast Jan. 12). !!!!!!!!............
But the biggest local names in reality TV were Jenna Morasca, $1 million winner of CBS' "Survivor: Amazon," and Matt Kennedy Gould, unwitting star of Spike TV's "The Joe Schmo Show."
"I've gotten to do some really cool stuff," Morasca said earlier this month. "There's a big scrapbook my dad and I keep with everything that was written about me, good and bad. I can't believe I was on Letterman. You don't realize the magnitude of the thing while you're doing it."
Morasca has few complaints. She's become close to Ethan Zohn, winner of "Survivor: Africa," although she's hesitant to say they're dating because their relationship "didn't start off normal."
She's also not entirely accustomed to standing in line at the grocery store, thumbing through a magazine and coming across her picture.
"US Weekly just did the 10 most shocking 'Survivor' moments ever, and Heidi and I got No. 1 with the chocolate and peanut butter thing," Morasca said of the time she and a fellow contestant stripped naked to win a snack. "I was reading the National Enquirer and they had a big article on my mom passing away. That's especially weird to see."
Morasca's mother, Carla, lost a 12-year battle with breast cancer Nov. 19. That's around the same time the all-star edition of "Survivor," featuring past contestants, was filming. Morasca won't comment on whether she's a member of the cast for the next "Survivor," which premieres Feb. 2 after the Super Bowl (CBS will announce the cast Jan. 12). If she is, it's possible her mother's death will become a plot point in the show.
"She wanted me to play 'Survivor' when I went to the Amazon, and she assured me she'd be fine," Morasca said, sidestepping questions about the timing of the all-star edition. "She was a huge fan and very supportive of me and anything I did involving 'Survivor.' "
Should that confluence of events come to pass, it would be an eerie echo of the most recent edition, "Survivor: Pearl Islands," in which a contestant fabricated the death of his grandmother to gain the sympathy of fellow players.
"There's a special place in hell reserved for people who lie about the death of a family member," Morasca said. "You're not a good player if you have to go there. There's other ways to play the game."