Lindsey's Luck Runs Out

In what was probably not a surprise to faithful viewers, Lindsey Richter was the latest castaway to get the boot on Survivor: Africa.

The twenty-something mountain bike racer appeared on The Early Show to discuss "the game."

Jane Clayson started off by saying that she liked Lindsey a lot more by the end of Thursday's show that she had for the other episodes.

Lindsey agreed. "I think that's going to be the general consensus. I had a lot of complaints about me." But she added in her defense, "You know, it's a show and they cut and edit it, make it look how they want it to look."

Bryant Gumbel, who had been rooting for the tick that had been stuck on Lindsey, wanted to know: "Do the people who really know you, did they notice a difference between you and the person they say on the air?"

She replied, "You know, I can't say that it was editing that changed anything. I was myself out there. The emotions that you feel out there just outweigh everything. And I was overly emotional. I mean, they definitely saw the real me in bits and pieces. But a little extreme, I think."

Clayson questioned her about her extraordinary outbursts. Were they over the top?

"Oh completely. Completely. I mean watching it - I was like, oooh. Aaah. Foot in the mouth," she said.

Gumbel if she had thought about how the game could've been different; did she beat herself up?

"You totally beat yourself up over it. It's like 'if only this. If only that'. There's nothing you can do about it. It's a game and whatever happens is meant to happen."

Richter went on to talk about her physical preparations for the game. "Physically, I packed on 10 pounds before I left. Pizza and McDonalds every day. They told us to. And then the first three days I lost 10 pounds of fat first so I maintained my muscle. And my body felt fine besides dehydrating one day. But other than that, I felt great. I really did."

But the lack of water did affect her. "That was a tough moment. I can't even explain what I was feeling. And, you know, they said that I walked around and said I was so tough. I don't really remember that. Who knows what came out of my mouth out there. Now that I look back, I'm like, 'whoa! I said that?' I really don't feel pain in sports and athletics, and feeling that sort of pain just killed me. I couldn't believe it.

The generation gap. Gumbel asked if the split in her tribe was a pragmatic strategy or personal.

"You know, there's a lot they don't show out there. It's 300 hours of filming, you know, crammed into 40 minutes. And the split happened kind of naturally. Brandon, Kim and I were just kind of, you know, making friends, just trying to be friendly with everyone. Then we woke up one day and realized that we were sitting ducks. And we kind of started to sense that the older people - they're not old by any means, the older people. Clarify that. It just split down the middle," she said.

Gumbel prodded her," It was so nasty, it almost seemed like it was personal."

Richter agreed. "It did. For me, my emotions were running high. You're stripped of all familiarity. You're with people who want to stab you in the back and chuck you out of there. For me, everything was exacerbated by the whole situation and I just went a little crazy."

Clayson wanted to know what she learned from the game.

"I learned the value of trust and friendship and think before you speak."

Gumbel noted that "everybody who comes through here winds up talking about the friends they made for life and how it was just a game, et cetera, et cetera." He asked, "Do you think there's still some lingering resentment?"

"You know, I think there probably is. It doesn't feel good, you know, to watch what people say behind your back. For instance, when we were interviewed. I heard Kelly say 'we just think Lindsey's really annoying.' Stuff like that is kind of like.... It's part of the game. And you don't want to like people. But I ended up really liking everybody out there. I mean it looked like we had all this animosity and head-butting. Even Frank - he's a great guy. Everybody has their great qualities. You just get wrapped up in the game and trying to push ahead."

As one of television's most disliked females, she admitted that it was hard to go on the Internet and read about herself. "It's a big mistake to on the Internet. I think I'm the most talked about Survivor ever. And it's not positive."

Bryant noted that she could give Jerri Manthey, (from Survivor: Australia) a run for her money.

Referring to Jerri's appearance on The Early Show Thursday morning, she retorted, "She was ripping on me. Yeah. Hello. At least I wasn't mean."

Asked about her future plans, Richter said she had been thinking about it a lot. "I'm not the Hollywood type. Obviously I don't do well when I'm being ripped on. Athletically, I'm a big athlete. Competitive mountain bike racer. I'm hoping that will lead to something with sports. If it's sports broadcasting or sports reporting or the host of a sporting show - something with sports. Because, you know, I went on Survivor thinking I can do this. I'm an athlete. You know, just don't stab me in the back and try to vote me off."

But she does have a sense of humor.

Tweaking Gumbel, she brought a fake tick for the host. "I heard you say to Silas 'so what did you think of Lindsey? I wanted that tick to win.' And I thought, all right."

Gumbel protested that he wasn't alone in his thinking.

She agreed. "Hey, watching myself, I wanted myself to get voted out of there. I was so embarrassed."

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