Early Show Highlights - 12.15.03
$1 Million Dollar Check Presentation to Sandra
Interview with Final 4
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HS: Joining us to present the million dollar check is executive producer Mark Burnett.  Mark, as you watched this show unfold, would you have put your betting money on Sandra to be the last one standing?
MB:  No but remember, I'm the one who said that Richard Hatch would be the first one voted out on the first one.  I never would have guessed that it would her, I'm glad though.
HS:  Sandra never had a vote cast against her, was there one other player who also had that run of the table?
MB:   I have no idea, I need an accounting firm to answer that one.
HS:  There was a very big turn in the  middle of this game, it had lots of twists that had never been tried before.  This idea of bringing back outcasts, how did you come up with that?
MB:  I'm always thinking about the game, whether I'm running, driving or in the shower.  I think it's important to keep it fresh.  We have 20 million viewers each week.  Rain or shine, they tune in, they deserve new stuff.  I want the contestants themselves to be off balance.  When people are off balance you get the raw emotion that makes great TV.  You never knew did you?
Sandra:  Never knew, slap in the face.
HS:  Sandra how did you feel.  Some of the other Survivors said that it wasn't fair to have the outcasts come back.
Sandra:  If I had been voted off I would have loved to have had the opportunity but since I wasn't I was like oh my God it's a slap in the face I have talked so much crap about each and every one of them.  Now I'm screwed.
HS:  Sandra the honesty that you portrayed throughout was so refreshing, you never minced words.
Sandra:  TY so much, I was just being me.
HS:  Mark why don't you go ahead and unleash that check.
MB:  How about that... here is for a military family, she told me that she just got a job for 9 bucks an hour.  I'm giving her a million dollars, I'm sooooo happy for you.
Sandra:  TY.
HS:  Sandra you have had plenty of time to think about winning this money what are you going to do with it?
Sandra:  I'm going to put it away.  I want to do what everyone else does, buy a house but I can't do that right away.  My husband is in the army and we live in base housing, we move around alot so I don't know where we'll be living at.  I wanted to get a new car but now I have one so I'm good!
HS:  One of the things you won was a brand new SUV.  Do you have kids.
Sandra:  Yes, two girls, 8 and 6.
HS:  What do they think about this.
Sandra:  Oh they wanted me to give them more allowance but I said you have to help me around the house.
HS:  Has your husband thought about retiring from the military?
Sandra:  I don't know what's going through his head.  He just re-enlisted.  He was like "geez if I had known you were close to winning the million dollars I wouldn't have re-enlisted.
HS:  Mark, lots of things from the show, memorabilia up for bids on eBay and the proceeds goes to AIDS?
MB:  As we do every year we auction off all our props on eBay to benefit the Elisabeth Glaser Foundation.  Like the Voting Urn here. 
HS:  The big deal is that the brand new Survivor is going to debut after the Superbowl, this is an All Star Survivor.  Sandra we so enjoyed watching you play, you can kiss Mark now if you want to.  Take care.
HS:  So Mark is going to come on the show and give us the All Star cast before the Superbowl.  He doesn't want to talk about it now.  We've heard the rumors about Rupert, Jonny Fairplay kinda let a little something go last night.
Julie:  Probably Rudy...
Heather:  Jonny Fairplay is coming back?
HS:  We need Jonny, he's good for the game.

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Interview with Sandra

HS:  How shocked were you when Lill picked you over Jonny Fairplay?
Sandra:  I was definitely in shock.  She was up there forever.  Jon is only 3 letters.  I was just in total shocked when she picked me to go along with her.
HS:  Did you have any inkling that might happen?
Sandra:  No not at all I had packed my stuff I was ready to go.  I can't complain I'm in 3rd place.  I could have been a long time ago.
HS:  When you and Lill went to sleep on that island for the last time last night, what were you thinking, dreaming about.
Sandra:  I really just went to sleep.  I just said I'll take final 2 because I said all along that if I went up against Lil she would win.  I had just thought about the $100,000.
HS:  Was that a mistake that everyone made?  The consensus was that going up against Lil, she would win, they would all feel sorry for her.
Sandra:  Not so much feel sorry for her but that she was such a nice person.  Sometimes I'd get up out of bed and just start cussing her out because she was responsible for Rupert and Christa getting voted out.  If I wake up on the wrong side of the bed, she's getting it today.
HS:  Going into TC, what was your strategy, you had to speak to the jury.  What did you feel like you needed to get across.
Sandra:  I wish I had prepared better because I feel like I didn't come across well... sometimes I can put words together really well...I just kept saying the same thing over and over.  When we were back at camp Lil was asking "what are they going to ask us".  I said don't even worry about it just go with the flow.
HS:  As the game went on we became more and more impressed with the way you played.  One one hand you were upfront, very strong in terms of dealing with other players, yet at the same time no one ever voted against you, you were above the radar, in people's faces and below the radar all at the same time.  What was your philosophy?
Sandra:  I just always thought that the perfect thing to do is always go along.  Everybody was strategizing 24/7, I said why worry myself with that, they are going to come to me when they need me.  And they used and abused.  When you need that vote come to me.  It worked out for me.   I was always 3 more days, 3 more days.
HS:  From day 1 you were so impressive in that village using your Spanish, wheeling and dealing.  Everybody else was in chaos, you were in control.  If Lil had picked Jonny Fairplay instead of you, who would have gotten your vote? 
Sandra:  Lil would have gotten my vote.  Me and Jon hadn't gotten along most of the time.  I actually did hate Jon.  There was no way, after he had stabbed me and slapped me in the face that I was going to vote for him.

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Interview with Lillian, Jon and Darrah

HS: Lil if you had to do it over again would you have picked Sandra?
Lil:  I would not have picked Jon at all.  I'm very pleased with my decision.  I've gone over it a number of times, my husband and I have talked about it.  It would have been Sandra.
HS:  What went into your thinking?
Lil:  Jon is a good strategist.  He was out there all the time scheming and playing.  But Jon's lifestyle is not something I approve of... sorry Jon...I kept thinking, if they're not going to pick an outcast, that was very apparent, that came into play.  Who do I want to give it to?  Do I give it to someone who was always wanting to have an orgy on the island or to a mother, a wife, somebody who I can relate to in a way of lifestyle.
HS:  You stuck to your values.  Jonny Fairplay what did you think when you got the boot?
JFP:  I thought I was the male, Survivor: Pearl Island champion
HS:  That doesn't count for much.  We all grew to hate you in the way you played the game but as you kept on making it week after week after week, we got to begrudgingly believe that you were one of the great players, but not great enough to make the final 2.  What was your fatal mistake?
JFP:  I don't know that I necessarily made a mistake.  I personally think that I'm the greatest player of all time
HS:  Some of the things that you said about women, do you like women or do you hate women?
JFP: Oh I love women, preferably 3 or 4 at a time.
<awkward silence>
HS:  Darrah were you surprised when you got the boot.
Darrah:  No I wasn't.  Pretty much all the day I was gone on interviews leaving Jon and Sandra and Lil by themselves. I knew something was up when we got to TC and Jeff said, you can talk among yourselves and figure out who you want to vote off.  Nobody wanted to talk so I knew then I was going home.
HS:  When you won 3 ICs in a row did you think, you know what maybe I've won a little too much here.
Darrah:  I had to win ICs to stay in the game.
HS:  Lil from watching the show, a couple of moments last night I thought you were going to lose it.  Did you feel like you were close to a breakdown?
Lil:  I was not sleeping, I was worn out. I'm an emotional person, I wear my heart on my sleeve. I'm a hugging person.  I'm friendly  If you call that weak then I guess it's weak.  I like myself the way I am, so does my family and friends.
HS:  Have you heard from the Boy Scouts?
Lil:  Oh yes, oh yes, they were all together last night cheering me on, oh baby.