Not Long For Nicole

A sports massage therapist from Hermosa Beach, Calif., Nicole Delma was the first to go on Thursday night's premiere episode of Survivor: Pearl Islands. The day after the broadcast (which also happened to be her 25th birthday), she visited The Early Show to talk about it.

Nicole's biggest mistake may have been trying to form an alliance with Lillian, the Boy Scout leader, who cannot tell a lie. Nicole's original plan was to oust Tijuana, with whom she was having a personality conflict. Nicole turned to Lillian, but soon learned the tribe majority would be voting off Ryan Shoulders.

Since Lillian and Ryan were close, Nicole thought Lillian may have wanted to know about the group's decision to dismiss Ryan. Lillian took the opportunity to save Ryan by revealing her prior discussions with Nicole to the tribe, which unanimously sent Nicole packing.

Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith asked her when she suspected she might be the one to go.

"I think I knew it was over when we were riding in the boat over to Tribal Council," recalled Nicole, "because people who had been friendly to me prior wouldn't look me in the eye and staring off into the distance, and I was getting a funny feeling."

Upon leaving Tribal Council, Nicole gave her final words: "Even with a million dollars at stake, I still had to say what I thought, when I thought it. And that's exactly what did me in."

In keeping with Survivor tradition, there is always a twist, and this season, the contestants were sent overboard with nothing but the clothes on their backs. (Harry called it "one of the great beginnings of any Survivor ever.")

How surprised was Nicole?

"It was amazing," she says. "I think it took six hours to get there. It was not a smooth ride... People were getting so sick on the way over, and we were turning down breakfast because it didn't look as though it were cooked all the way. Little did we know that we wouldn't be getting another meal. My dress, I thought, would be on for some pictures. I couldn't get the zipper up, so I took off the bra and figured no one would notice. And I had high-heeled sandals on."

She says the hardest part about being on the show was the lack of sleep. "You may see our eyes closed, but we didn't sleep at all. You're really not sleeping. The palm fronds had leeches on them, the blankets were covered with fleas from dogs in town and the heavy rains came and you couldn't keep it going."

Also, their shelter had been set up right next to a rock that was infested with crabs, who came out at night to harass the survivors.

"One was still hanging onto my rear end when I stood up, because they were climbing up our dresses," said Nicole. "We were bleeding."