Boomer Doc Gets The Boot
Dr. Carl Bilancione was the latest castaway to be voted out of Survivor: Africa. And, in a new twist for the reality show, the votes were split down the middle along generational lines - the baby boomers vs. generation X. Bilancione spoke with The Early Show's Jane Clayson about his time in Africa.
A Florida dentist, Bilancione admitted that he was going to take some flak for saying he was glad he wasn't a twenty-something; that generation X doesn't have a work ethic.
Clayson wanted to know what it was about the younger group (Brandon, Silas, Lindsey and Kim P.) that irked him so much.
He said they didn't really bother him until the end. "We couldn't get them motivated, to get on page to work. You had to do water; you had to do fire. They wanted to sleep in. You know, after six or seven days of that, you get tired of it. And we would make a joke, 'Are the kids up yet? Are they watching cartoons?' Come on, we've got chores to do, [We] just couldn't get the message across."
When asked iof he was surprised by the generation gap, Bilancione simply said, "No, I have a child that's 17."
He said he felt somewhat targeted because he was rich. He said that he never trusted Silas, because he "knew he was going to play both ways. And he was working the angle that I was a rich dentist and he brought up the cars. I never talked about any of that stuff. They brought it up. So I knew what they were doing."
The younger group freely admitted that they were in the game only for the money. But that wasn't Balancione's main goal. "I wanted to lose weight. I wanted to go to Africa with a camera, and then I wanted to win. In that order. If they had filmed this in Chile, I wouldn't have gone."
He achieved two of his goals - he lost 18 pounds and went on a safari with Jessie and Diane afte rgetting the boot. "It was awesome."
But it was the bridge between the generations that seemed to bother him.
"Those children, they were trying to get under our skin and I think they did."
Bilancione said he was shocked the younger Samburo members ate all the breakfast while he, Frank Linda and Teresa were out getting water. "Totally caught me by surprise, shocked, surprised last night. None of us had any clue that they were doing it. We trusted them. You know, three older people, including myself - everything we said was trying to be honorable."
He went on, "You know I'm not going to sell my integrity for $1 million. Integrity is more important than money, and that's the lesson I try to teach my kids. They say, 'Dad, that's a bad lesson.' No, it's not. It's a good lesson."
Clayson wanted to know how it felt being called the "old guy."
"It shocked me. I'm like a big kid. I go to Yankee games. I just live life to the nth degree. So at 46, I felt it a little bit in the challenges. But being the "old guy" was like - wow. Am I old?"
Bilancione wasn't totally negative about the younger membrs of his tribe. "In all realit,y Silas is a great kid. 23 years old. Would I have acted that way when I was 23 years old? Probably."
He said he wasn't surprised that there was a tie vote. "I wasn't surprised about the deadlock, because three other people in my tribe weren't voting against me. We were tight. I was surprised that I got it, because the word was Frank was going. Lindsey didn'tlike Frank and Silas didn't like Frank."
Clayson asked why him.
"I think it was just a shock value. And I think it was also strategy on Silas' part. 'We break up Frank and Carl and maybe we can get Teresa to come over to our side.' It's a strategic plan."
He also said he thought the last tie-breaker - questions from the survival manual - was fair. "Oh, the test was absolutely fair. I just went brain dead."
But like all the other survivors, Bilancione said he would do it again. "I would do it absolutely without even blinking an eye. In fact, I asked them if I could be on Amazing Race. He added that the producers "just looked at me."
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