Survivor

As BuddyTV has reported, there is a rumor circulating that after the next season of Survivor in China, there will be an All-Stars season. No doubt the legion of supporters for Survivor: Fiji’s Yau-Man Chan are starting a write-in campaign right now to try to ensure he is one of the All-Stars selected.

In the meantime, Yau-Man has returned to the real reality of his life as the Director or Information Systems for the College of Chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley, where he spoke with their own news department and shared some behind-the-scenes details about his time on the show.

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Chan detailed more about his strategy going on the show, saying there were three main components. First, and most obvious, winning immunity challenges. Next, where others might fly under the radar or hesitate to show their strengths, Chan knew he would have to work against his image as a “scrawny old guy” and so he worked hard to gain their respect as a strong competitor so as to avoid being culled from the tribe early. Lastly, he paired up with Earl Cole, feeling that Earl was smart and stable and therefore a strong partner.

Despite his obvious smarts, Chan admits that the overwhelming hunger on the island made his “brain…go into neutral” and says he could feel himself “slowing down” mentally. He also says there were trying conditions that might not have been obvious on the TV screen. For example, in the truck challenge, where the contestants had to dig in the sand, that sand was actually blazing hot – nearly 108 degrees – and it burned the contestants’ hands.

And the presence and threat of those snakes on Exile Island weren’t just for show. Chan says they were “poisonous, swim very fast and move pretty well on land too.” Although obviously the producers had made precautions for the health and safety of the contestants by having anti-venom at the ready, Chan says, “it is so difficult and dangerous to administer that you can end up in cardiac arrest." And the airlift to medical assistance in New Zealand or Australia would take four hours. So when Chan felt a snake moving across his legs at night on Exile Island, needless to say, he tried “to be really nice to these snakes.”

It’s no surprise that a clearly intelligent and curious person like Chan found being cut off from the news of the world hard to take. He calls himself a “new junkie” who “need[s] to know what’s going on in the world.” But on Survivor, they are so cut off, he wasn’t even aware that there was a coup in Fiji during filming.

Since he’s returned to the real world, Chan seems to be taking the good and the bad about the experience in stride. He still seems to have be pretty miffed about coming in fourth place, with $60,000 in winnings, saying, "I can't afford to retire without my million dollars.” However, there are some unexpected windfalls from the experience, like earning the respect of his teen daughters.

As news develops around a possible Survivor All-Stars season, and any potential involvement by Yau-Man Chan, BuddyTV will keep you updated!

- Leslie Seaton, BuddyTV Staff Columnist