Well, yeah, of course they’re paid. We hear the most about the first- and second- place prizes, but everyone on the show is paid.
The first voted out gets a certain amount and each one after that gets an incrementally larger amount. So Jenna will probably be paid what the third-ousted Survivor is supposed to be paid.
I can’t believe I’m going to defend Jenna.
(I thought her behavior the first time she was on Survivor was despicable.)
However, I’m willing to cut her some slack on the mom thing. Her mom had been sick for 3 years, and could have remainined in that condition into the indefinite future before taking a turn for the worse. Jenna had what amounted to a potentially-lucrative business opportunity. Tough to turn that down on the chance that her mom might take a turn for the worse during the six-week window she would be gone. Was Jenna supposed to put her life on hold and chain herself to her mother’s bedside until she passed? What if that’s another three years down the road?
I’m betting that Jenna’s mom wanted her daughter to compete, and to live her life. I’m betting that she and Jenna discussed it, and that Jenna’s mom urged her to go on the show.
I don’t think ill of Jenna for going on the show, and I certainly don’t think ill of her for leaving the show out of concern for her mother.
Give her a break on this one.
Maybe one of you could confirm or deny what a workmate of mine was saying this morning. Her understanding was that when Jenna signed up for ASS her mother was doing as well as she was during Survivor: Amazon. Then, in the time leading up to the show, after she committed, her mother took a turn for the worse. If so, she is more sympathetic to me than if she signed up with all the information she had when she left.
Did she show up on The Early Show? If so, can anyone recap?
I’ll also give a (weak) defense of Rupert. In dryer places, digging down can help make a great shelter (like in the sod houses in the midwest). The ground will be better protection from the wind and the like. An awful decision in a rainforest, though.
Me, I’m waiting for Survivor: Wyoming in February - no Bikini’s, but fire would really be reward. Or Survivor: Green Bay would make the water challenges more interesting.
Maybe one of you could confirm or deny what a workmate of mine was saying this morning. Her understanding was that when Jenna signed up for ASS her mother was doing as well as she was during Survivor: Amazon. Then, in the time leading up to the show, after she committed, her mother took a turn for the worse. If so, she is more sympathetic to me than if she signed up with all the information she had when she left.
Did she show up on The Early Show? If so, can anyone recap?
I’ll also give a (weak) defense of Rupert. In dryer places, digging down can help make a great shelter (like in the sod houses in the midwest). The ground will be better protection from the wind and the like. An awful decision in a rainforest, though.
Me, I’m waiting for Survivor: Wyoming in February - no Bikini’s, but fire would really be reward. Or Survivor: Green Bay would make the water challenges more interesting.
Sorry about the double post.
Can’t do it. Her concern for her mom is actually the only admirable thing about this entire fiasco. You can’t embark on a journey that 92 other contestants wanted to be a part of, quit in mid-stream, and expect to be shown as much respect and courtesy as the other people out there busting their asses.
I think, if she’d gotten word that her mom wasn’t doing well, and had left, that would be one thing. But she left on a hunch. Regardless of clever editing, you simply have to question whether or not it was concern for her mom that was the primary factor in the departure.
By the way, BIG FAT SPOILING RUMOR AHEAD:
Survivor: The Australian Outback former contestant Jeff Varner writes a Survivor speculation internet column. In this week’s edition, Jeff eludes to the fact that ANOTHER Survivor may yet quit the game this season, and it “completely changes the face of the game.” The speculation is that this player is either…
IF YOU REALLY DON’T WANT TO KNOW WHO, DON’T SWIPE THIS BOX:
Colby Donaldson or Ethan Zohn.
I doubt it. I think some kindhearted soul in the production team slipped her the word that her mom was taking a turn.
Note that she initially stated unequivocally that her mom was doing worse. (like she knew it as fact.) Probst caught her and made her amend her remark to say that she wasn’t getting outside info and that her concern for her mom was a hunch. I think that was just Probst covering the tracks.
I’m with you, Spoke.
I also hated Jenna during her season, but feel some real sympathy for her this time. I think I heard or read somewhere that her mother was first diagnosed when she was 11 years old. That means her family has been living with this, off and on, for 11 years!
Also, although I don’t have any close personal experience with cancer, from what I’ve read people can seem perfectly well one day, then be dead a week later. Maybe her mother seemed fine when she left, or when she signed the contract. Maybe she was just in denial that this time was the time. If her Mom had been through a lot of ups and downs before, I can certainly see that being the case.
The fact of the matter is, we have no idea what the situation was, or what was said between her and her mom (I’m willing to bet her mother was pushing for her to go), or what she was really feeling. I, for one, am willing to cut her a little slack. She’s young, and at least she made the right decision in the end.
This is what I think as well. I can’t imagine that the producers wouldn’t tell her that her Mother was getting worse if they had knowledge of it.
When I first heard that she was going to be on the show I thought what a greedy little biotch. She had already won $1,000,000 on Survivor Amazon, her mother was sick, there was no way she should have gone on ASS. Then I thought maybe there are some serious medical bills to pay and she made the choice to do the show for that reason.
I’m so glad that she got to spend some time with her Mother before she passed. last night’s episode was the only Survivor that has made me cry. 
I’m sympathetic to Jenna, but I wish she had taken just a moment last night to apologize to the REAL victims of her decision:
all those Survivor producers who worked so hard designing and building the Immunity Challenge that had to go unused.
I’m sorry but I have no sympathy for Jenna. She spent a lot of time her last time out telling everyone how worried she was about her mother. She even conned Matthew into giving up his reward of a letter because she’s such a spoiled brat.
She’s worried about her mother. Fine. Stay at home with her and your million dollars.
I can’t imagine that she’ll get any money for this go around. I suspect that by dropping out you are breaking your contract with the producers and they don’t have to pay out anything.
Fiver I think the challenge they showed in next week’s promo was the one they were going to do last night (I could be wrong).
Well, no, not really. For the teams to be balanced none of those could have competed in the place of Jenna (although you could argue that most of the women are stronger than Jonny Asshat). We could have seen more of Christ-Meth or Sandra though and that would have made me happy.
Where’s Vecepia? They didn’t even bring in all the winners. Helen deserves another shot too, so does Hunter. But who do we get? Jenna Lewis and Amber Brkich and Tom the Pig Farmer. Wimmens can be good survivors as well as eye candy, can’t they?
Hmm, wonder how Jenna M. found out if she hadn’t been given outside info? An assistant producer saying “Your mother just might possibly be getting much worse, and we wouldn’t object *if * you decided you wanted to go see her. But remember, you’re only making a hunch, we’re not actually giving you information” ? Well, maybe that would hold water. But CBS and Burnett are careful, after all, to call it a “game drama” to steer clear of the Game Show Law.
I’m all about the Jenna hate. I really do loathe that selfish little snot. However… as someone who has also lost her mother to cancer, I can totally understand how she might’ve ended up on that island, even if she didn’t really want to.
Wanting to make a dying parent happy is an extremely powerful emotion. When my mother was diagnosed as terminal, it was extremely important to her that everyone go on with life as usual. She didn’t want anyone treating her like she was sick or dying, she didn’t want anyone to change how they were living their lives – to the point where she made my sisters and I promise to keep her diagnosis a secret from everyone in the world, including her own mother. When I say it was important that no one do anything differently than they would if she weren’t dying, I can’t even think of words strong enough to express how emphatic she was about that.
She packed up my littlest sister and sent her off to her first year of college, 300 miles away, because by g-d she wasn’t going to miss out on that experience. My sister did not want to go. Our dying mother made her. When your mother is dying, you want to do everything you possibly can to make the last months/weeks/days/hours/minutes as happy for them as you can. How you feel about it is secondary – their feelings are all that matters, because they have such a short, short period of time left to enjoy what life they have left.
It took me a long time to forgive my father (though he never knew, and still doesn’t, that I was ever angry with him) for leaving my mother at home alone to get his hair cut and nails manicured the morning she died. He didn’t want to go. He begged her not to make him leave. She insisted that he go, again, because she didn’t want to be treated like a dying woman. And both of them were in serious denial about the gravity of how close she was to actually taking her last breath. Denial. It’s such a strong, strong thing.
I loathe Jenna. I, too, resent that other players missed the opportunity to compete because of her participation. I agree that it was completely unfair to her teammates to put them at this kind of disadvantage. But life’s not f*cking fair, and twists are part of this game (even if they aren’t planned by the producers) and the contestants will just have to pull out all their mettle and overcome it – it’s what Survivor is all about. I can’t seem to find it in me to fault Jenna for her actions (either going in the first place, or leaving when her gut (or the producers) told her to).
Rest in peace Mrs. Morasco.
I don’t see why anyone should get upset about reality interfering with a reality show. Should everyone stay on the islands if a hurricane comes? Give me a break. For that matter, I’m sure her mother wanted her to appear on TV again. Hell, it probably made her proud as hell. Shayna lists enough other information, anecdotal but easy to extrapolate, so I guess I won’t beat the horse here.
Love transcends game shows for god’s sake. She was right 100%. Our hindsight that her mother did poorly is a rather unfit position to critique her actions from.
I would imagine that they offered the chance to appear on All-Stars to all the previous winners and notables, but not everyone took them up on the offer. If I was Vecepia and had already won the million, and gone through 39 days of hell to get it, I don’t think I would come back. Particularly knowing that an All-Stars edition is bound to be much more difficult that the regular experience was already.
I either heard or read somewhere that Vecepia was not invited back for All-Stars because Burnett didn’t think she made for good TV. He’s right. 
Yes, that’s right. If I remember right, they asked every Survivor contestant if they were willing to come back for all-starts (and apparently only E. Filarski and C Haskell declined), and then they decided who they were actually going to invite. They weren’t looking to only invite winners. I think I’ve seen quotes where Burnett (or maybe it was Probst) said that most emphatically that Vecepia was NOT invited back (don’t remember that it was because she didn’t make for good TV, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if that was exactly the reason).
What I read was that all the former winners were asked back, but Vecepia and Brian both declined. They both have chosen to distance themselves from all things “Survivor.”
Well, we certainly agree on who was the most undeserving winner! Although Vecepia ranks right up there with Jenna. And you’re right, Jenna played that “sick mom” sympathy card quite a bit in the Amazon.
As others have mentioned, I think she was getting some sort of updates on her mom’s health. To be able to leave home, spend 9 days there, and then quit and have her mom die 8 days later - she must have had some input from outside. Not that I’m faulting the production staff; she deserved to know, of course, but they should have been more upfront about it, if that’s what actually happened.
Maybe they didn’t want people to think it was a sick joke after Jon’s “dead” grandmother?