Special Reports

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

March 15, 2001 / 1:40 PM EST / CBS

Tribal loyalties held up as former Kucha member Alicia Calaway was ousted in a 5-4 vote over Ogakor's Jerri Matheny.

The personal fitness trainer was the latest casualty in episode eight of Survivor: The Australian Outback. On Thursday, she sat down with Bryant Gumbel and Jane Clayson of CBS' The Early Show to talk about her experiences.

Asked if she felt any better about getting a "respect" vote out, Calaway replied, "Definitely. I went out the best way possible."

She went on, "I wanted to see the ultimate reason whey they decided to vote me off. And respect is definitely the best thing I can think of."

But she admitted she knew the outcome even before the vote. "I knew before I even went out there you can't hide physical strength and I knew I would be a threat to people."

Calaway was pleased when told that she had been "Gretchenized," a reference to an intimidating member of the original Survivor show, who was also voted off the show. "I like that. She was my favorite person on the first show. I take total respect in that. I'm just flattered by that."

Gumbel asked her if the game had followed her expectations.

"No absolutely not," she said. "I didn't think I would be arguing with Kimmi. I knew from day one that Kimmi and I were not going to get along. I just knew it. And she and I just bumped heads from the beginning, so it was just a matter of time. It was building up and that whole explosion just was pent up aggravation."

"I haven't spoken to her since I've gotten back," she added.

She admitted that their feuding didn't help her chances: "Anything that separates you from everyone else, even if you think it is right — it turns out be a problem. It was a loss of control and people don't want to see that."

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Asked to explain whose decision it was to go after Jerri Manthey, Calaway said, "We actually decidethat before the merge. We sat down when Mike got hurt and we knew that we had to do some thinking here. What are we going to do? It is even-steven. We had them. We had them before Mike got hurt. We knew it. And then all of a sudden everything shifted."

"Colby and Jerri seemed to be the two strongest people from where our standpoint was and we needed to take care of them first. We all kind of in passing said, we're going with Jerri."

Calaway says that Manthey wasn't really as bad as her reputation. "Jerri is an amazing person. This game just brought out the worst in her — 100 percent. I think she's a very strong-willed person. And she doesn't hold back her feelings at all. I think going into this she wanted to be the leader; that strong person and it just came off way too harsh. She's not like that. When you're hanging out with her she's a lot of fun."

We'll have to take her word on that.

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