Oh, My Heck! Neleh's Back On TV

(CBS)  Neleh Dennis, the 22-year-old Utah woman who won $100,000 this spring as runner-up in "Survivor: Marquesas," is back on TV.

But these days, she can be seen, not on prime-time, but on early morning television in Salt Lake City. On July 1, she started her new job as features reporter for KUTV, an affiliate of CBS, the network that airs the "Survivor" series.

.The experience so far has been "really cool," she told Jane Clayson Tuesday on "I learned how drive a NASCAR, really cool, and I went up to the hot air balloon festival."

Her focus is features and light entertainment news. "No hard news stories. I don't think I'd be good at that," she told Clayson.

A psychology major in college, Dennis has no previous journalism experience and admited it was her stint on "Survivor " that got her the job.

"I've only been doing it for a week now, so I am learning things every day," she said. She said she found it particularly difficult to interview people while listening to the director through an earpiece.

"It's so funny, you get hung up on the little things," she said. "I feel comfortable in front of a camera, talking, but it's little things that get me."

As for her "Survivor" experience, in which she lost the million-dollar grand prize to Vecepia Towery, Dennis says she continues to see many of the other competitors, including Gabe, The General and Paschal, who was her almost constant companion on the island.

"Paschal and I talk like every day," she said. "He always calls me."

As for her prize money, she said she has used it to buy a $300 chair an d $40 day planner and is saving the rest "as a cushion."

"There's nothing I really need right now," she said.