Hey Survivor Fans. The Yak was able to participate in an interview yesterday with Denise from Survivor Philippines!
As you may know Denise Stapley the physically and mentally tough sex therapist from Cedar Rapids, Iowa received a much deserved win of a million dollars on Sunday nights finale!
Denise has said that she is the one who “outed” Lisa to Penner, which is the information he so conveniently used at the finale tribal council. She has made peace with Abi even though she acknowledges it was definitely difficult to live with her. Denise was quite shocked that Abi voted for her as sole Survivor! Apparently the only person that still seems bitter towards her is Russell, a Kalabaw tribe mate who left early in the game. Ultimately Denise thinks that what clenched the win for her was that she had attended every tribal council and persevered. She also did not want to apologize for how she played the game being proud of herself in her camp life, social game and her proficiency in challenges. She said that there was a part of her leaving final tribal council that thought “I think I just did it!” She was not overly confident however and didn’t want to jinx it so she would never truly consider winning during the five month period they had to wait for the results. As much as she wanted to hope she never let herself believe it until the votes were announced.
Denise says that her family needs to decompress. She takes her stewardship of the prize money seriously and she and her husband first and foremost want to insure the future of their nine year old daughter and other family members.
The Yak: What surprised you the most watching back the season?
Denise: Far and above how early on Malcolm was thinking about cutting me out! Re watching it is so funny like God, that little stinker was thinking about it weeks ahead. That’s definitely it!
The Yak: Who did you enjoying hanging out with the most?
Denise: Without a doubt definitely Michael Skupin and Lisa. I think there was a difference between the friendship of Malcolm and Michael Skupin and Lisa and I, just partly because of age and life experiences . We would be able to have conversations about our kids and different things. That just doesn’t translate. So just being able to spend time within the game where it wasn’t always about strategy and it wasn’t always about the game. It was great!
The Yak: Did you ever find out what bit you in the neck?
Denise: You know we don’t know! We assume it was likely a centipede. They had asked one of the crew members who was a local there and from the symptoms they assumed it was a centipede. Luckily by the end of the day the pain subsided, it was incredibly painful. Dumb us you know we were sleeping on the ground and it was raining, just nasty nasty!
Before leaving home Denise wrote out a two page strategy on how she wanted to play the game and she reports it was almost by the book.
Thanks Denise for speaking with us and Congratulations on your much deserved win as Sole Survivor!
Carter Williams the 24 year old track coach from Kansas, was eliminated on the last Survivor episode. Carter’s friendly social game and physical ability went a long way in his tribe mates decision to view him as a solid threat in the final three. We talked to Carter today to get his take on the game.
Q: Looking back now how do you view the voting?
Carter: I think it’s fairly clear we’re not playing old school Survivor. This is the game where you’re real threats. Early in the game you’re trying to keep your tribe strong and keep people you like around but the end is so close. Everyone can see it. I barely lost the last 2 immunity challenges and I’d like to think if I got a third shot that I could take it home, but who knows. That being said I think people woke up and said why would we take this guy to the end with us when he can beat us in immunity challenges? I put money on myself even though as tough as Denise is and as clutch as Malcolm was. Abi pulled some magic out and they had an alliance of four that they were going to stick with.
Q: When Abi revealed that she had another idol, what did you think?
Carter: I thought it was bogus. I mean she was acting so dang strange about it. (laughs) She was reading that note super strange and talking about it in a really strange way. No one believed her I hope that’s not why I went home. Those people are smarter than that. But, she was definitely flaunting around an imaginary idol.
Q: How did you understand Abi as compared to the others, did you get to know her?
Carter: I actually did get to know Abi. That’s kind of the thing that a lot of people don’t get to see. If I have a friendship with someone or a beef with someone you’re not going to see the friendship, they’re going to show the beef. It sucks that they kept her over me and that she pulled out some magic. I had no problems with Abi. She was bossy and she was nasty at times, but none of it was ever directed at me. Abi is an interesting girl, I can’t imagine what it’s like to hear all this stuff being said. It’s got to be tough to know your friends and family are watching but hey she’s 33 years old so she’s a big girl.
Yak: Has there been anything that has surprised you watching the Season so far?
Carter: When we left the game Penner told me; hey you need to remember as much as you can about what happened out here because when it gets shown it’s going to be completely different. They are going to show 3 days worth in 45 minutes. A lot of things went on that weren’t shown like I would climb coconut trees every day and get coconuts. That was a big part of my experience out there and no one got to see that. I had friendships with those guys. I became friends with them. You didn’t get to see how much fun we had. It was so hard, it was difficult but we would laugh, we would talk about things and play goofy games.
Yak: Aside from you not winning was the experience what you hoped it would be?
Carter: It was pretty dang close. I really wanted to go on an immunity run. I was really excited about having my back up against the wall and saying like “take this” and winning out by taking immunity. It would be so cool, I was really pumped to go for it. Most of my favorite players have done that. I liked when Fabio and Ozzie did that. It was such a cool experience I feel super lucky to have played this game. I know so many people that wished they could play this game, even the people that work on the show. They say they wish they could play but they can’t because they’ve worked on it. Wow I feel very lucky to be a part of this 30 million dollar production. I’m very appreciative.
Yak: As far as the celebrities in the game; Jeff Kent and Lisa, did you have any idea who they were?
Carter: I had no clue. I told Jeff Kent when the game was over I totally thought you were just some Texas hick and he responded. Oh yeah, cuz that’s who I am. You got to know me you just didn’t know I played baseball. I thought it was really cool to get to know them apart from that. My Mom was telling me, how funny would it have been when she walked into that challenge if she would have said. “Hey it’s Blair from the Facts of Life!” That would have been so funny if some random loved one had said Hey that’s Blair! My Dad would have totally called her out. (laughs) Jeff Kent told me at Ponderosa that after this game was over I would hear some stuff about him. I couldn’t figure it out and he wouldn’t tell me so I said can I google you? He smiled and said, yeah you can google me. I didn’t think it was something that big. I thought maybe he was really rich or something but I was a Jeff Kent fan before I knew he was a baseball player.
Q: You were aligned with Penner often times but it seems that you weren’t really loyal to him in the end. What was it about returning players and how much influence did Jeff Kent have on you with that?
Carter: Looking back on that I really wish we could have been a tight 3. I really, really got to know and like Penner. It was kind of this thing that I was aligned with Jeff day 1 on the beach it was kind of like let’s figure out what we need to do. My main ally I desperately wanted to be working with Penner too. Anyone who’s seen Boston Rob or Coach walk his way to the finals, it does leave a bitter taste in your mouth and when you’re watching at home it’s like oh man I would so get them out. They’re too good, they’re too smart, they’ve played before. But then you get to know them and I ended up loving Penner and wishing things had gone differently. I wish when we merged we had all agreed to do something differently. It gets confusing out there. I was listening and working with Jeff and wanting to work with Penner and it gets crazy. Jeff obviously had a big target on Penner’s back which led to him being voted out.
Speaking with Carter it’s apparent that he cherished his time in the game and made many friendships. He actually says he likes and respects all cast members. He said that he, Pete and Malcolm became close partly due to them being the same age. Taking into consideration his genuine caring for his tribe mates and their reciprocating his feelings it was probably a wise move to vote him out.
Roxanne “Roxy” Morris, the 28 year old seminary student from Brooklyn, New York, was the second castaway to get her torch snuffed on Survivor Philippines after her Matsing tribe voted her out at tribal council on this weeks episode of Survivor. It was the second loss in a row for the Matsing tribe. We got to sit in on a media call with Roxy who gave us a little insight into who she was and how it all went down.
The Yak: Roxy, how did you come to be on Survivor? Are you a fan? Was this your first attempt to be on the show? Roxy: Honestly there is a cousins cousin of mine who is a huge fanatic of the show. He tries out every year and is really excited about it. He knows every single player and has watched every season. He would talk to me about it but I would talk to him about what I talk to people about which is going to church, stuff like that. He said, you know if you want something you always get it. He said I think you’d be a good player on Survivor. I said “really?” So I made a 45 second video and submitted it online and got called the same day.
What type of conversations did you have with Russell prior to going to tribal, did you think he was on your side? Roxy:: Absolutely, I was guessing, I was trusting as much as I can. Even after watching the episode, he made his best effort. He went up to Denise right before tribal and said “she’s saying some stuff, she’s making good points.” I think Denise’s decision to vote against me was just a personal decision. When the minds made up, it’s made up. I don’t think it was a matter of thinking Angie was tougher than I or anything like that. I really think that Russell was on my side but you don’t want to be on the side that has 2 against the side that has 3 so it was kind of like he was bullied to vote against me. I still believe that at that particular time he was on my side.
What value does Angie bring to the tribe? Roxy: Zero, none. She doesn’t add any value to the tribe. She brings Malcolm some kind of comfort but that’s about it.
What happened to the plan to send Russell home after last week? Roxy: If Zane would have shown a inkling that he wanted to be there he would not have gone home. You cannot get rid of all the men on your tribe. We wanted to keep Zane but he showed that he can’t do the game of Survivor at all, he couldn’t even fake it. Nobody wants to lose another guy, that’s just what it is. I think people would prefer to lose a woman when you’re thinking of the physical challenges. Russell being a man is one of the few things that saved him. Even though he may not be as strong as he looks.
Is there anything else that you could have done to save yourself? Roxy: I knew that it was between Angie and myself. Half of this game is strategy and the other half is the way the chips fall.
For me, I always wholeheartedly believe that I was going to stay in this game as long as Jesus wanted me to and if he wanted me out second or it was my exit time, I was at peace with that long before going to tribal council. I think I pulled out the best possible “save myself” tactic at the very end and tribal showed it. I seemed very down because of the rain but I’m sorry at tribal I held my own and I did not go down as some quiet little unsure person. I went down stating my claim and saying my piece and I will stand by that.
Roxy of Matsing Tribe
The Yak: During the challenge Russell kept his promise from the week before to not dictate who was going to do what. He asked Angie who had commented that she ran track in High School if she would run twice and she said she couldn’t. He then asked you and you told him that you had not drunk as much water as the others. Do you think if you had put forth a stronger effort you would have showed your strength? Did your tribe ever even discuss who was good at what with the exception of people saying they weren’t good at puzzles?
Roxy: In terms of strategizing absolutely not. My tribe was so unhealthily obsessed with building a little condo for themselves on the island, they didn’t even address the fact that we just lost a challenge. They get back and they awkwardly say “Oh, I’m going to get wood, I’m going to get water. They are just interested in building a little empire on this island and never address the fact that “Hello?, we just lost a challenge!, let’s talk about that.” That was my issue, their focus was in the wrong place and that’s why I talked about camp life at tribal. It shouldn’t be their focus.
As far as me saying I didn’t drink enough water. Number one, we’re stuck on an island, we’re not drinking a lot of water. I particularly used that excuse at that time and looked Russell in his eyes because one, he got out of the the game because of dehydration so I knew if I said that, he was not going to pick me to run twice. The reason I didn’t want to do the two runs is because I wanted to give Angie a platform to fall on her face. I wanted to give her an opportunity to showcase that she was weak. Just in case we had to go to tribal council, I knew that her and I would be on the chopping block and I knew that was something that someone could not use against me, that she was stronger than me. I don’t care what she said about running track in High school. I wanted to show that this girl (Angie) is not really able to play this game, physically. I proved myself to be correct because after she ran she fell to the floor. In the first couple of seconds of her running, she had already slowed down, they were coming in third picking up the puzzle pieces in the first leg. That was my strategy behind saying that.
The Yak: Was anyone offended when after losing the challenge Russell said the tribe needs to get their heads out of their ass? Roxy: I know Russell, that’s just who he is. You probably could have yelled “fire” at that point and no one would have paid attention. We weren’t really listening to Russell. At that point everyone was just thinking, who’s going home?
How did you take away the portrayal of your religious beliefs? Last night we saw you sitting on the beach talking to God one on one, and even in a different language. Denise made a comment. Roxy: I mean I pray. If it’s a question about how do I pray? or when do I pray? I’m stuck on an island and when you start to feel like you have no super strong allies, God’s always there and always there for you. I hope that’s what people thought. If Denise is spooked out by me speaking in tongues, she wouldn’t be the first person in the world to be feeling weird about that, but that’s understandable as well. People are going to say things are weird, but what’s weird to one person is normal to another. Denise is from Iowa so I don’t know how much exposure she has to different types of anything. I’m from an International city such as New York so differences are normal to me.
Did you recognize either of the celebrities in the game? Roxy: I didn’t recognize the baseball player. However every time I looked at Lisa I felt a familiarity when I looked at her but I couldn’t pinpoint what it was.
The Yak: Would you return to play Survivor again? Roxy: Absolutely. I think the game is very challenging. They make it look so much easier than it really is. I definitely think that it’s a game that every person who calls themselves a Christian could have an opportunity to play.
The Yak: Thanks for the chat, Roxy. The Yak wishes you the best!
Hey Survivor Fans. The Yak was able to participate in an interview yesterday with Denise from Survivor Philippines!
Denise: Far and above how early on Malcolm was thinking about cutting me out! Re watching it is so funny like God, that little stinker was thinking about it weeks ahead. That’s definitely it!
Denise: You know we don’t know! We assume it was likely a centipede. They had asked one of the crew members who was a local there and from the symptoms they assumed it was a centipede. Luckily by the end of the day the pain subsided, it was incredibly painful. Dumb us you know we were sleeping on the ground and it was raining, just nasty nasty!
