Special Reports

Dishing <i>Survivor</i>

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

March 9, 2001 / 4:42 PM EST / CBS

Thursday night on CBS' Survivor: The Australian Outback the Kucha and Ogakor tribes merged into one called Barramundi. But everyone still voted along party lines. Jeff Varner became the first post-merger victim. He and Colby tied through two rounds of voting, but Jeff was ousted based on previous votes against him.

On Friday The Early Show's anchor Bryant Gumbel hosted a roundtable discussion about the broadcast. Joining him were Andy Borowitz of Newsweek.com, Susan Cheever, author of As Good As I Could Be and the original Survivor winner, Richard Hatch.

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The discussion, a free-wheeling affair, opened with Gumbel noting that "Richard has an egg on his face."

To which Hatch replied, "I was a little wrong."

Talk quickly turned to Jeff's ouster. When asked what went wrong, Richard said, "Jeff played brilliantly. He's smart. That's what he did wrong. He didn't – he wasn't able to be illusive enough about his intelligence."

Cheever disagreed. She thought that past voting did him in.

Talk then turned to the issue of alliances.

"I don't think that can possibly hold up because there are too many odious people here for them to be that loyal," said Borowitz.

Hatch didn't think there were party lines. But Cheever felt differently. "What's amazing is how good-natured these people are. There is loyalty. There is love." And she did admit to hoping to see gender alliances form.

So did Richard. "You see the guys bonding together. Women off, one by one. Gone!"

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The panel then weighed in with their opinions of the various contestants.

Borowitz: "I think Jerri is now the ultimate 'survivor." (She) is a cockroach. She will survive them all."

Cheever: "She'll spoil it all."

Hatch: "Tina is playing this game beautifully. She's really learned and really getting sharp."

Borowitz: Tina scares the hell out of me. That Ellie-Mae voice.

Richard: "Keith, you know, would do anything. He's like the Denice Rich of the outback."

Borowitz: "Nick is dispensable. Rodger is dispensable. Elisabeth is goofy and emotional."

Hatch: "Colby has a good shot. He has a brain and he's playing this brilliantly. Brilliantly, brilliantly, brilliantly."

Boy, they're not shy with their opnions, are they?

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