When the cast for Survivor 50 was announced I saw a generally mixed reaction to the inclusion of Jenna Lewis. Jenna played on the original season of Survivor but was probably best known for having her message from home family video tape not arrive in time to be shown. It was a memorable moment reminding the audience that these were real people who left their family behind to compete for a million dollars for sure, but also to entertain the viewers at home. In that season she showed she had some game but given that her tribe went down 5-4 at the merge and this was season one it was only a matter of time before she was booted off the island.
Unfortunately for her 3 of the Tagi 4 jumped onto Sean Kenniff’s alphabetical voting strategy and Jenna was voted out 4-3-1 finishing in 8th place. It wasn’t until season 8 Survivor All Stars where Jenna emerged as a huge threat to take home the title of Soul Survivor. Coming into the season I don’t think many people viewed Jenna as someone who would have a large impact on the season. In the unaired segment where Chapera acted out what they thought Saboga was going to do at the first tribal council they ended up voting Jenna out. In truth I doubt many fans thought of her as an all star, but Jenna came to play. From the very first episode Jenna set the tone for how the season was going to go.
Jenna found herself on a tribe with Rudy, Rupert, Jerri and most importantly winners Tina and Ethan. In her first confessional she made clear that the winners were dead in the water.
“When we got on the boat and I saw everybody I was ecstatic.” Jenna said. “Rupert and Jerri are in my league, Rudy perfect ally, Tina and Ethan two winners. Done. It’s so easy to convince the others to vote out the two winners.”
After the first immunity challenge where Jenna’s Saboga tribe lost she went to work convincing Jerri, Rudy and Rupert to target the winners. Since this was the days before hidden immunity idols we even got a scene of her sitting down with Ethan to explain her plan, and let him know that despite his strength in the challenges he was going to be on the block sooner than later. In their conversation Ethan attempts to make the point that winners would be less likely to win again to which she bluntly responds.
“I just don’t want you and Tina around because you’re winners”
In a follow up confessional she makes her thinking even clearer to the audience.
“Nobody out here wants to reward another winner, sorry guys it’s our game now get the hell off our playing field.”
Ethan and Tina plead with Rupert to put tribal strength over strategy but their pleas fall on deaf ears. That night Tina the winner of Survivor The Australian Outback became the first boot of Survivor All Stars. It’s a development that seems to surprise the other tribes as when Saboga comes into the challenge the other winners in the game Rich Hatch and Jenna Morasca each look panicked at Tina’s exit. After the challenge Hatch gets a confessional commenting on Tina being voting out.
“Holy crap that thing kind of blew me out of the water. Tina first one out, big target on the winners, except me, no big target on me.”
His tribe mate Lex van den Berghe the 3rd place finisher in Survivor Africa is also surprised but excited at the prospect of the winners getting taken out, he even mentions that it sets the tone for the game which gave this article its title.
“I mean I’m surprised but at the same time it’s cool because it sets the tone for the whole game,” van den Berghe said. “Tina first out, we all know it’s business this time.”
Over on Chapera’s beach Rob Cesternino the 3rd place finisher in Survivor Amazon is almost giddy in his confessional.
“When we showed up to the challenge and I saw Tina was voted out of the game that made me very excited because I think she’s a big phony, and if it means the winners are going next that’s alright by me because last time I checked I don’t have a million dollars… yet”
Unfortunately for Rob C. being the highest placing member of a tribe of all non winners makes you a winner by proxy and he was booted in episode 4 when Chapera lost immunity for the first time. He was in good company on the pre-jury however as some of the biggest names joined the winners at the loser’s lounge.
Survivor All Stars Pre-Merge Bootlist:
Tina – Winner
Rudy – 3rd
Jenna – Winner (quit)
Rob C. – 3rd
Rich – Winner
Sue – 4th (quit)
Colby – 2nd
Ethan – Winner
Jerri – 8th
The pre-merge segment of Survivor All Stars was nothing short of a bloodbath with a previous average placement of 2.6 for the eliminated contestants. It’s what enabled Boston Rob who previously finished in 10th place and Amber previously finishing in 6th place, to run the game with Amber emerging victorious. Even after the merge top tier players were targeted with Lex being the first merge boot and Kathy Vavrick-O’Brien previous finishing in 3rd place being the second. It all started with Jenna putting her foot down and proclaiming that this was going to be her game. If she was that cutthroat in 2004 I can’t wait to see if she is once again surprisingly cutthroat in Season 50 or maybe her previous finish of 3rd place will come back to haunt her.
The Blindsiders 
Leave a comment