Early Show Highlights
Survivor: Palau Episode 9 Cast-Off
Coby Archa

<clips of Coby deciding to catch bait and tribal council>

Harry Smith:  Coby is with us this morning.  Are you okay?

Coby:  I'm fine. 

Harry Smith:  Have you settled down a little bit?

Coby:  Apparently I went a little crazy.  My eyes were bugged out of my head. 

Harry Smith:  You didn't get a little crazy, you were crazy.  What happened to you?

Coby:  I know.  I was just sick of them.  I was sick of every last one of them.  I just couldn't stand it anymore.

Harry Smith:  Really mad as hell and I'm not going to stand it?

Coby:  Pretty much. 

Harry Smith:  You were playing so well, you did very well in a lot of the challenges.  Very tough out there.

Coby:  It was very hard.  And I think actually us being so good at the challenges was the downfall.  Because I think if we would have gone to tribal before then I don't think I would have gone first.  But being stuck with them over and over, week after week, I just got sick of them.

Harry Smith:  And looking back, hindsight is 20/20, what made you snap?  Because you were playing along, developing some alliances and everything and all of a sudden you were like crazy man.

Coby:  Right.  What made me sick was the fact that no matter how hard I worked, no matter how good I did at camp, no matter how good I was at immunities, nobody would play with me.  And so I finally turned into a bitter little kid on the playground who stomped off.

Harry Smith:  Bitter...bitter is right.  Ok... lots of things to talk about.  Stephenie comes off last night after her night alone on the island and she was so happy to get hooked up with you guys and the first thing you do is "come talk to me".  And she turns around and blabs everything you say right back to everybody else.

Coby:  But my motivation in telling Stephenie all of that was to give her power in the game.  Now I realize in hindsight that it probably took away my power.  But I think Stephenie deserved to be there and I wanted to give her power.  Know what was going on, who was against who.  And I thought it was worth it at the point.

Harry Smith:  She is tough.

Coby:  I like her.

Harry Smith:  She is very tough.  A very appealing player.  Although we're very sad in our house.  Because you are amusing.  You provide the comic relief on the show.

Coby:  Awwww.  But as you can see I wasn't very funny anymore.  There's nothing funny about a bitter old queen.

<laughter in studio>

Coby:  And that's what I turned into.

Harry Smith:  And there you have it.  Allright, let's talk about the challenge last night.  This is a challenge they've run many many time before.  You've got to stand on the platform in the water forever and ever and ever.  Were you into it?

Coby:  Million dollar donut.  I'm gonna hear that forever.

Harry Smith:  Were you into it from the beginning.  Did you think "I can do this"?

Coby:  No I knew I was going to jump.  I was calling their bluff.  It was like a  poker game.  I was like "either you're going to play with me or you're not."

Harry Smith:  But you had nothing in your hand.

Coby:  Pretty much.  Hindsight's 20/20.

Harry Smith:  So was the donut worth the million?

Coby: The donut was worth the million dollars because quite honestly it was how I played the game up to that point.  It was about the statement "play with me or don't play with me".  They didn't play with me.  I wonder why?

Harry Smith:  Are you bitter still?

Coby:  No, no.

Harry Smith:  What about the experience for you?

Coby:  Words can't really...I know it sounds cheesy but it's one of those things that changed my life.  When it comes to family and friends...when you're stripped of everything like that and then you have to go back to the real world...it's a totally amazing experience.

Harry Smith:  Did it make you a better person?

Coby:  I hope it made me a better person.  Not a bitter person but a better person.

Harry Smith:  And Rene's big question of the morning is, how did you get your hair to stand up like that?

Coby:  You know I don't know how my hair looks so fabulous, Rene.  I don't know.  Because it always did.  I don't know.  *smiles*  Her hair always looks fabulous. 

Harry Smith:  Well you guys will talk in our next half hour.

Coby:  I love your hair too by the way.

<studio laughter>

Harry Smith:  Would you do anything differently with me?

Coby:  Buff, polish.

Harry Smith:  Like a bowling ball.  Thanks Coby.  Coby will stick around and take questions.

Segment 2:

Rene Syler:   On Survivor: Palau the two tribes are no more after last night's big merge.   Unfortunately for Coby Archa he wound up on the wrong side of the Tribal Council vote and became the first member of the jury.  Coby welcome back.

Coby:  Helloooo.

Rene Syler:   Were you surprised when you got voted out?

Coby:  Hindsight, I saw it coming but I really thought there were other people on the chopping block before me.  So I was shocked.

Caller:  Hey Coby we love you!  You are such a strong player.  How does it feel to know that the weaker light-weight players like Janu and Jenn are left in the mix to potentially win the title and the money?

Rene:  Well now first of all do you think that's going to happen, that Janu...

Coby:  Ewwwwww...

Rene Syler:   Okay...anyway... so how does it make you feel?

Coby:  You know it's just part of the game.  You have to accept it.  There are players in the game and there are pawns in the game.  That's just the game, it's a numbers game.   People have the numbers so they're still there and I'm not.  You can't be bitter about it.  You have to move on.  I think they're great and I love the game so I'm not going to complain.

Rene Syler:   Every shot I saw Janu in she was laying in that hammock.  Did she do anything?

Coby:  Janu is really, really sick.  From about day four, like vomiting and things like that.  She was pretty sick so I don't really blame her.  At least she was good at the challenges.

Rene Syler:   Everybody lost a significant amount of weight.  I think you said you lost about 28 pounds?

Coby:  I lost 28 pounds.  I needed to in those black underwear don't you think?

Rene Syler:   What was with the skirt...that was quite clever.

Coby:  You do what you have to do.  In the tropics jeans rub sores on your legs, big rashes.  So I wore the skirt to keep my legs from getting chapped.

Caller:  Hi Coby, your hair looks fabulous.  You had an obvious rivalry with Tom.  What started it all and are you guys friendly now?

Coby:   You know my rivalry with Tom began the day we hit that Koror beach. Tom was just a dictator. Everything had to be his way or the highway.  What I hated most was that he acted like he cared about everybody else.  He really didn't.  It was just his way or no way.

Rene Syler:   I didn't really notice much of a rivalry until the last couple of episodes.  

Coby:  When you look back to the Home Depot challenge and he insisted that we pick Ian for the representative.  Tom has had his thumb on every single decision that has happened in that tribe and it's usually his decision.

Rene Syler:   That's so interesting because in our house we really like Tom.  Of course we really liked you, too.  I was curious about how all that went down.  Are you friends now?

Coby:  <no answer>

Rene Syler:   Sooo.... I'll take that as a no.

Caller:  You had the chance to pick Angie at the start of the show to be in your tribe.  Why didn't you pick her?

Coby:  I knewwww this was coming.  At the time I did pick Angie because I thought we both had big targets on our backs and if I picked her it would make my target even bigger and cost me the game.  Of course in hindsight I would have loved to have Angie on my tribe because she would have been a player, she would have added something.  Whereas there's alot of deadweight on my tribe that I don't think deserve to be there.  In hindsight I wish I would have picked Angie.

Rene Syler:   What about when you pulled Stephenie aside and told her all this stuff and then she goes over and blabs.  Did you really think she was on your side?

Coby:  I never told Stephenie all those things to try to get her on my side. I told Stephenie that because I like Stephenie and I wanted to give her power in the game.  She needed to know what was going on. I probably cost myself the game giving her the little bit of power I had.

Rene Syler:   I'm sure there's a donut commercial in this for you.  Coby Archa, thanks a lot.

Coby:  Thank you, you're so pretty.