Surviving the Early Show: The Final Five Interview
Surviving the Early Show: The Final Five Interview by David Bloomberg -- 05/14/2007 Earl won a million dollars on Thursday night after Dreamz broke his promise. Now all of the final five are together on The Early Show for Earl to get his check and the others to get a little time to talk. Thursday night brought us the Survivor: Fiji finale and reunion. Now it’s time for the final five to be on The Early Show. Or maybe it should be called The Earl-y Show, because he’s here to pick up his million-dollar check. Clueless Harry Smith is on hand to talk to the contestants. If you want to know just how clueless Smith is, check out his interview with Stacy. Hoo-boy. Anyway, he introduces the segment by saying the finale was a shocker even by Survivor standards. How would he know? Oh, somebody must’ve written it on a cue card for him. We see clips of Dreamz rationalizing his decision not to hand immunity over to Yau-Man, then some of Cassandra describing herself as the underdog. But of course, Earl won, and he joins Smith, as do the other members of the final five. Smith points out that this was the first time there has been a unanimous decision on Survivor. What was Earl’s response? Earl says he was very ecstatic and surprised that he got all the votes. He thanks the jury and is glad they respected the way he played the game. Does it seem real? He says not yet – until he gets the check. Harry Smith wants to take Cassandra back to “Survivor Council.” Oh Lord. He doesn’t even know it’s called “Tribal Council”? Idiot. Anyway, he says everybody was peppering her with questions and it seemed to be mean-spirited. What was that all about? Cassandra says at a critical point in the game, Stacy left her alliance and made them upset and angry. Smith cuts her off at this point and doesn’t let her finish her answer. In other words, par for the course on The Early Show. Smith says there are more than a few people wondering about Dreamz. He talks about the deal Yau-Man made with him. It looked to Smith like Dreamz made that agreement from the heart (like he would know) but then Dreamz said on the finale that he was just playing the game. Which was it? Dreamz says at first he was sincere about it, but he knew he had to get him out before it came to that point – that made him able to be sincere (figuring he wouldn’t have to live up to the deal). Wow, a good question from Smith – he asks Dreamz if he thought he had any chance against Earl going into the final three. Dreamz says no. “So why bother? You could have walked away with your honor intact.” Dreamz says he left his honor at home with his family. Did Yau-Man think Dreamz would be good for his word? Yau-Man says yes, up to the very end, he thought Dreamz would give him the immunity necklace. Smith also wants to know why Yau-Man sent himself to Exile Island, got the third clue for the rehidden immunity idol, and then handed it to Earl. Did he ever think he should keep it to himself and get two? Yau-Man says no. He already had one and had agreed with Earl that it was for the best for each of them had one. What did Yau-Man think when Earl voted him out? Yau-Man says he was disappointed, but he realized that Earl helped keep him around and in general he played an honorable game. Would he have done to Earl what Earl did to him? Yau-Man says he probably would, but he would have had to think really hard about it and would have created a situation where he had to do it rather than voluntarily doing it. Moving to Boo, Smith says he was all over Dreamz at the final Tribal Council about his honesty. He says Boo played so well (more evidence that Smith hasn’t watched – while Boo might have played alright, we barely saw any of it, and nobody who saw the show would make that comment) and he wants to know what Boo was trying to get out of Dreamz. Boo says Dreamz has a good heart and wants to do the right thing, which is why he had an inner conflict with himself. He wanted to pull that out of him and get him to say it’s time to accept honor over the money. Boo insists that Dreamz will. How did Earl stay so low under the radar? Nobody ever wrote down his name! But Smith doesn’t give Earl the chance to answer, instead bringing in Julie Chen with the oversized million-dollar check. Chen asks if he’s done the math to find out how much it will be after taxes. He says he knows there’s six zeroes in a million dollars (referencing the bizarre final Tribal Council question from the finale). He will definitely pay his taxes and be smart with his money. Smith congratulates them all, and we’re done.
Surviving the Early Show: The Final Five Interview by David Bloomberg -- 05/14/2007 Earl won a million dollars on Thursday night after Dreamz broke his promise. Now all of the final five are together on The Early Show for Earl to get his check and the others to get a little time to talk. Thursday night brought us the Survivor: Fiji finale and reunion. Now it’s time for the final five to be on The Early Show. Or maybe it should be called The Earl-y Show, because he’s here to pick up his million-dollar check. Clueless Harry Smith is on hand to talk to the contestants. If you want to know just how clueless Smith is, check out his interview with Stacy. Hoo-boy. Anyway, he introduces the segment by saying the finale was a shocker even by Survivor standards. How would he know? Oh, somebody must’ve written it on a cue card for him. We see clips of Dreamz rationalizing his decision not to hand immunity over to Yau-Man, then some of Cassandra describing herself as the underdog. But of course, Earl won, and he joins Smith, as do the other members of the final five. Smith points out that this was the first time there has been a unanimous decision on Survivor. What was Earl’s response? Earl says he was very ecstatic and surprised that he got all the votes. He thanks the jury and is glad they respected the way he played the game. Does it seem real? He says not yet – until he gets the check. Harry Smith wants to take Cassandra back to “Survivor Council.” Oh Lord. He doesn’t even know it’s called “Tribal Council”? Idiot. Anyway, he says everybody was peppering her with questions and it seemed to be mean-spirited. What was that all about? Cassandra says at a critical point in the game, Stacy left her alliance and made them upset and angry. Smith cuts her off at this point and doesn’t let her finish her answer. In other words, par for the course on The Early Show. Smith says there are more than a few people wondering about Dreamz. He talks about the deal Yau-Man made with him. It looked to Smith like Dreamz made that agreement from the heart (like he would know) but then Dreamz said on the finale that he was just playing the game. Which was it? Dreamz says at first he was sincere about it, but he knew he had to get him out before it came to that point – that made him able to be sincere (figuring he wouldn’t have to live up to the deal). Wow, a good question from Smith – he asks Dreamz if he thought he had any chance against Earl going into the final three. Dreamz says no. “So why bother? You could have walked away with your honor intact.” Dreamz says he left his honor at home with his family. Did Yau-Man think Dreamz would be good for his word? Yau-Man says yes, up to the very end, he thought Dreamz would give him the immunity necklace. Smith also wants to know why Yau-Man sent himself to Exile Island, got the third clue for the rehidden immunity idol, and then handed it to Earl. Did he ever think he should keep it to himself and get two? Yau-Man says no. He already had one and had agreed with Earl that it was for the best for each of them had one. What did Yau-Man think when Earl voted him out? Yau-Man says he was disappointed, but he realized that Earl helped keep him around and in general he played an honorable game. Would he have done to Earl what Earl did to him? Yau-Man says he probably would, but he would have had to think really hard about it and would have created a situation where he had to do it rather than voluntarily doing it. Moving to Boo, Smith says he was all over Dreamz at the final Tribal Council about his honesty. He says Boo played so well (more evidence that Smith hasn’t watched – while Boo might have played alright, we barely saw any of it, and nobody who saw the show would make that comment) and he wants to know what Boo was trying to get out of Dreamz. Boo says Dreamz has a good heart and wants to do the right thing, which is why he had an inner conflict with himself. He wanted to pull that out of him and get him to say it’s time to accept honor over the money. Boo insists that Dreamz will. How did Earl stay so low under the radar? Nobody ever wrote down his name! But Smith doesn’t give Earl the chance to answer, instead bringing in Julie Chen with the oversized million-dollar check. Chen asks if he’s done the math to find out how much it will be after taxes. He says he knows there’s six zeroes in a million dollars (referencing the bizarre final Tribal Council question from the finale). He will definitely pay his taxes and be smart with his money. Smith congratulates them all, and we’re done.