Once Again, Age Matters

Remember Survivor: Africa and the battle between the "twenty-somethings" and the "grownups"? Well it appears that the same thing may be happening on Survivor: Marquesas as well.

Last week, 45-year-old Peter Harkey became the first castaway to get the boot. On Thursday, 49-year-old Patricia Jackson, also known as "Momma" became the second baby boomer voted out.

She joined Bryant Gumbel on The Early Show to talk about her experiences.

The first thing Gumbel wanted to know was if she thought she may have been a bit too bossy for her own good.

Jackson replied, "I don't think I was a bit too bossy. I am the way I am. I wasn't going to change." She went on: "I didn't approach this game with the goal being winning the game. I wanted to stay in the game to play the game. But I had to survive to do that. We were there without food and water. So I was trying to get some organization, so we could survive and survive comfortably. But, you know, they didn't like me being bossy. And I understand that. I have no hard feelings."

Gumbelpressed her. "It doesn't bother (you) in the least that, I mean, frankly they found you more annoying say, than Sarah."

She said it didn't bother her at all, on any level. "I was surprised that Vecepia voted for me," she said. "Vecepia and I had some awful long spiritual talks that I thought were really special. And I thought she saw what I was about. But I guess I thought wrong."

Gumbel noted that her tribe, Maraamu, seemed to be a pretty dysfunctional group.

She agreed. "I think the dysfunction lies in the fact that you had pairs. Sarah and Rob were a pair. And Sean and V were a pair. It didn't come together as eight people. We were individual groups."

She did say that an alliance with Hunter and Gina was never mentioned. "I thought it was too early to try to form that up. Hunter, Gina and I were close. We never said we were aligned. But we knew we would never vote against each other. It was just kind of unspoken. We had that kind of bond."

So what about Sarah and Rob? asked Gumbel. Were they really an item?

Jackson said she didn't know, that he'd have to ask them. But she did say they would walk off by themselves and where you saw one, you saw the other.

Gumbel was curious about the fish in the immunity challenge. How bad was it? He thought it looked like sushi.

She didn't like sushi she replied. But "if it had just been a piece of sushi laying there, it probably wouldn't have been a problem. But you're talking about rotten fish in rotten water. It was terrible. The smell alone would make you gag."

She described the smell as "fish guts tossed in a dumpster for a couple of days."

In hindsight, Gumbel wanted to know, was there any way she could have won?

Jackson said she thought she could have won, if she had been able to stay a bit longer. "People who meet me right off, they either hate me or like me. But people who hate me - the longer they're around me and know how I work - then they say 'well she's not so bad.' I come on strong. But I have things I could have added. But I wasn't there long enough to show that. If we could have won a couple of immunities I would have stayed longer."

Gumbel read Jackson a question from a viewer about ageism. "Do you feel that older people are cast on the show simply as cannon fire," she was asked.

She agreed. "I think age plays a big role in it. I really do. Going into this, I thought the older people would have an advantage because of the maturity lever. But younger people see them as weak. And you can't get around that."