Survivor Fever - Survivor Palau

Survivor Live Internet Talk Show Transcript with
Janu Tornell: Episode 10 Survivor Palau Cast-Off
(Transcript by SurvivorFever.net 4.25.05)
About Survivor Live: Every Friday join hosts Jenna Morasca and Dalton Ross for an exclusive interview with the Survivor voted off each week, fan phone calls and in-studio guests. Visit the official CBS website to hear live interviews with past Survivor: Palau cast-offs

JM = Jenna Morasca DR = Dalton Ross

Segment 1:

DR: Janu I'm so bummed out because you quit. It bums me out when people quit and you made her prognosticating skills look good.

Janu: Oh I'm sorry that I bummed you out but I had to do what was best for me and that's what was best for me, I don't regret it. I laid down my torch. I went in looking for the million dollars and got to a point where my body just couldn't take it anymore.

JM: How much weight did you lose?

Janu: Like 12 lbs that I couldn't afford to lose. I was looking like a sheet of paper.

DR: But you had thought about this earlier. It wasn't just at this moment at TC that you decided to quit. On Survivor Insider clips you had a few times where you said "should I leave, how's it going to look?"

JM: You asked a couple of times for people to vote for you. You thought it was you but it was Coby.

Janu: I was getting sick of getting sick. And then the mental thing, I thought I could do it. I just didn't want to get into that whole game playing of scheming and talking bad. And I know that's the game [gestures with fingers] but that was hard for me. So I kept pushing as much as I could and I kept trying to do the challenges and that's it, I couldn't do it anymore. When I went to the island by myself, something happened there and I got what I needed to get so it was fine.

JM: Definitely a change of heart once we saw you by yourself. We saw a whole different Janu. Sometimes you have like a moment, that this is your defining moment in the game.

Janu: Yeah it was like that. Viewers kept saying...that Janu...I think they had forgotten the one that climbed the tree and helped build the shelter in the very beginning and did the challenges and kicked some butt in those challenges but then I was the woman in the hammock. Just shriveled up and very frail and a whiner. Coby, who I love dearly, even wanted to throw me in the fire. That's fine that's what he was experiencing at that moment. I went to that island, it took me forever to get fire. Got fire and then the rain came down and I lost my fire. And then I got it up again, that wasn't shown. I went to sleep and had little crabs biting at my skin. It was fine, I wasn't scared, it was just so cool to be by myself. I had, like Jeff said, some sort of epiphany.

DR: And then when you went to that TC, you thought it was you that was going. Because you thought it was you, had you not asked people to vote you off before? Then you get there and start to listen to things and you start to realize, maybe it's not me? And that's when the decision was made?

Janu: Yeah, I think prior to all that I had more or less asked because I was getting ridiculously sick, over and over. But they were using me as a pawn piece. When I went to that TC I started realizing what was happening and I said, "you know what this is it, I'm not going to be someone's pawn to play me however you're going to play me". Stephenie got very emotional and she wanted to prove her point as to why she deserved to be there and I didn't. It wasn't about saving Stephenie. I want the winner to come out of Koror. She's a great person, she truly is an amazing character from Survivor but she switched it around. I had to clarify it, I don't want you to be in debt to me because I'm laying down my torch so that you can move on further.

DR: In her season she [Jenna] kept someone in.

JM: We kept Shawna in. She was sick and wanted to go home and we said "we need your vote and we're sorry". We kept her around and then she kind of came back to life when the boys came over. We did use her as a pawn and she was mad. It was a really dirty move but it's what I felt like I needed to do.

DR: Did you feel that Jeff Probst was leading you with his questions?

Janu: And I have to clarify that because I've been asked that in so many interviews That's what it appeared but Jeff Probst did not once ever feed anything into me to make my decision. I think what happened, he is such an astute individual, he has so much experience with this game. He is very good at accessing situations better than anyone of us as a Survivor in that moment. So here he comes, headmaster of TC, here we come in. I am torn, I know what I want to do but I don't know if this is going to cause me to maybe not be jury anymore. I was wondering what would happen. He was trying to talk to me and kept saying "what are you saying". It sounds like he's feeding me, but not that's not it. I made the decision on my own. People didn't see my throwing up til last night. People didn't really know that I was that sick. Coby said that I was sick. Katie with her drama thought I was just sitting in a hammock for drama.

JM: She's a little bit drama too, Katie.

Caller: One thing I was disappointed in was the lack of gratitude. I know you didn't leave for Stephenie's sake but I was disappointed that she didn't say "thank you" because you saved her butt and kept her in the game. You were shown throwing up and in the hammock but in the challenges, particularly the reward challenge last night, you gave it your all and helped your team win. Do you think you were portrayed fairly by the editors of the show?

Janu: I think that I was portrayed the best way that they could do it. They only have so much footage that they can show. I did try to do my very best in the challenges because I was not going to make my team lose on account of me being sick. If it was individual, like with the cage, I chose to pull out. As far as gratitude with Stephenie, many people have already said that, why didn't she say thank you.

JM: She kind of rolled her eyes when Jeff said, bring me your torch. I don't really understand that. She is a great competitor but strategically I don't think she is the most brilliant player to ever play. She's tough. But she shows too much emotion.

DR: I don't know how much of her crying was real or just for pity, don't vote me off.

Janu: I think it was real. She was upset that her emotions were coming out. Her having to say thank you to me for letting her stay in the game? It didn't even cross my mind. I did my move for me, in turn it helped her stay in the game.

DR: As you were walking up there I was wondering, is she going to be on the jury or do they have a contingency plan.

JM: They can't bring in someone who was voted off before Coby because they weren't able to see his TC.

DR: Did you think about that all as you said "I'll lay it down".

Janu: Yeah I think that's why it took me so long and made it seem like Jeff was "okay are you going to lay it down"?

JM: If he would have said "no, you're not going to make the jury if you do this". What would your reaction have been?

Janu: I don't know.

JM: Would you have let them vote?

Janu: Yeah probably, I don't know. That's a good question.

Caller: My question to the beautiful gorgeous Janu is what in the world made you sick on that island.

JM: Was it Katie?

Janu: We went 13 or 12 days without real food and then I had that beef stew and bread and root beer and that started it. My body little by little just couldn't handle the food.

JM: There have been people who couldn't handle the food. Ryan Aiken couldn't handle it.

DR: If you get sick and you don't have a comfy bed with a roof over it you can't get better. Every season there's at least one person.

Caller: Have the rules changed since Jenna's season for quitting? I was under the impression that you could only quit unless everyone else wanted you to quit.

JM: There's never any rules on quitting. Osten started it.

Janu: Osten is a trend.

JM: There's alot of people on this season...Ashlee and Jeff and Coby that used the experience. Like "I wanted the experience".

Caller: I'm a big Tom fan and I think he's a great guy. I could see that he helped you out when you were down. How do you feel about Tom, Janu?

Janu: I liked Tom for what he did, he was there to support me when I was in my little hammock. He gave me a pep talk. Whether it was his strategy in the game, I took it as completely real. I appreciated that and won't forget that.

JM: Was he the only one who consoled you?

Janu: Absolutely not. Gregg...the first two that I told were Jenn and Gregg. I said, "you guys I'm having a really hard time". Gregg was very warm about it, Jenn was as well. But then it started being like "I don't care why should I vote you out if strategically it's going to help me keep you in the game". Coby was my rock the whole time.

Caller: Janu you look beautiful. When did you feel that the game was over for you and you couldn't go on?

Janu: To be quite honest, after I started getting sick there were a lot of times that I said, oh my gosh can I keep going? And I would keep going and keep going. When I was blindsided and they took Coby out, I thought oh my God, he's gone and I'm here by myself. He was very special to me and continues to be. When they took him away I was done.

Segment 2:

JM: Everybody that has came here has had a confrontation with Katie. She had that whole Jack In the Box thing.

Janu: Here's the story with Katie. I don't hate Katie. I didn't hate her then. I didn't like her because I didn't think she had enough balls to come straight to my face and tell me what she thought. Months have passed and watching the TV show now, wow, in every interview in every episode she's saying something about me. I did lose weight, I did get sick. I was having a hard time. When she couldn't do the ropes, and her hands were beat up, because that poor kid tried as hard as she could. She lost almost all of the skin on her hands. I didn't ridicule her. I didn't go behind the camera and say, oh my God I can't believe you didn't get it on the first try. I just said "don't worry kid, you'll do okay". All I can say is she's a unique individual, I'm unique, we don't make the same judgment calls. If that's what she thought about me at the time, then go for it.

DR: <to Jenna> Katie is someone that you actually hate more than Tom.

JM: No I like Katie. I'm a Katie fan. She said I'm her favorite Survivor. I like Katie because she reminds me of Jenna Lewis. I think Jenna Lewis is hilarious. But she's playing like... okay take me along with you. This strategy that she has works.

Caller: Last night it seemed like you were pulling your weight in the challenge, you had some time away from the tribe. Did you ever think you were going to stay?

Janu: It's a dichotomy. Here I am withering away then I go away to an island and be by myself, I could have come back with a second wind and use anger and go all the way with this. At that point my rock was gone. Caryn was kind of going towards Tom. In the beginning it was Coby, Willard, Caryn and myself on the chopping block. If that's her strategy then go for it.

JM: I think Caryn is lucky that Steph is there.

DR: In that RC it didn't seem like she was doing anything. You were diving down and she was just hanging out on the raft.

Caller: With the numbers the way they are, why didn't you stick around and vote the guys off?

Janu: If the women would have been smart, up until the point where I left, we could have gotten together. But Tom won the first challenge and then he won the second challenge, so you'll have to stay tuned to see what happens.

JM: Next week they kind of touch on Stephenie trying to get the girls together but Jenn is with Gregg and it will never happen.

DR: Gregg would turn on Jenn but I don't think vice versa.

JM: I think Gregg would go with the girls and vote off a guy. Gregg is really playing the game like you should play the game.

Janu: Absolutely.

Caller: Jeff Probst was kind of dogging you and Caryn for letting Tom and Gregg do all the work in the RC. How did you feel about that?

Janu: He was very vocal even in the cage challenge. I try my best in every challenge that I participate in.

DR: One of the most priceless moments was at the IC when they talked about making fire and they all started laughing. Jeff called them all out.

JM: They are laughing, being rude and then they go "oh well we're sad".

Janu: That's one of the things that was really hard for me that took a toll on that mental part for me in the game. It is Survivor, it is a game...lie, cheat, deceive, whatever it takes to get to a million dollars. I understand that however I chose to pull myself out of the game. I'm on my platform and I'm thinking "wow what's it going to be like [being exiled]". They're laughing. Jeff calls them on it. Then afterwards it's like "bye, I'm sure you can make it". I'm thinking... does this mean you are playing the game or is this hypocrisy".

Caller: Between Katie and Tom who do you think was strategizing better when you left the game?

Janu: I think...gosh...now I'm getting feedback from Jenna with the whole Katie thing...I love Tom whether he's been bossy, he didn't want to let us use the shower for showers which is completely fine with me. He's been the alpha and there's been conflict at certain times especially with Coby because Coby would try to be there and be part of stuff and he would just kind of get pushed to the side. I would have to say Tom just because I saw him do stuff. That man is a powerhouse. In every challenge that he could, he tried his best. Survivor means how well you played the game. Strategy, power, pulling your weight, all that kind of stuff. That's why I was so upset when Coby left because he pulled his weight and was good in challenges.

Caller: Did everybody notice the little look that Coby gave to Stephenie right after you quit? What did you think of that, it looked like he was almost happy to see Steph stay?

Janu: I noticed that. Coby's main move in telling Stephenie was like "I'm telling you how things are, you go and stir things up. Because if I'm gone, let it be you". He and I were very close. He said "I'm gone now you stir things up". I'm gone, Steph is left, of course he's going to look at Steph and say "go for it".

Caller: Do you have any regrets and is there anything you would have done differently? And how did Tom get to be the chief of the tribe?

Janu: Regrets, I have none. I am so happy with what I did and how I did it. As far as Tom being the leader... here's this Koror team pretending like everybody loves everybody else. Nobody ever said verbally, "Tom you're going to be the leader". It just kind of happened like that and everyone went with it. Maybe if we would have lost an immunity at some point things would have been different. We wouldn't have been this happy happy tribe.

Segment 3:

JM: It almost looked like during the whole show that the tribe kind of excluded you. It was almost like high school, like the girls would be over here...Katie and Jenn and doing their thing...and then it was like...Janu. Did you feel like they kind of left you out?

Janu: I think that if you were to ask them that and Katie made it a point to say that they always wanted to include me in. Part of that is true. There was never a time where they said, we're going over here, leave Janu here. But I could tell there was a difference especially towards the end I would rather be by myself. It was said that I didn't pull my weight. I always helped.

DR: In that last IC did it matter where you were positioned. It seemed like as people got out the water level was lower for the ones left. Did that matter?

Janu: Gosh I hope it didn't. That would be unfair. The cage was how it was and the tide started coming up.

Caller: I'd like to know if Caryn is as mousy and quiet as she appears to be on TV.

Janu: I only know her from what you saw on TV. She was very vocal and you saw her get vocal in the very beginning when she was telling Tom off about "how you dare you choose for us". She's a woman with a very strong character. She's a very strong woman. I thought, you were with us first, the poor little outcast, and now you're turning. Good for her, more power to her. It wasn't nice but it isn't about nice.

JM: So what are you going to do now? You're a Vegas showgirl.

Janu: I haven't gone back to the show. I've been modeling. When this whole season is over we'll see what happens.