Survivor

Twenty-nine-year-old Charlie Herschel could soon gain notoriety for being the winner of Survivor: Gabon but he still has a long way to go. Until then, he’s earned some notoriety for another reason: the openly gay Herschel knew Clay Aiken’s big secret before the former Idol singer came clean. Of course, we all knew about Aiken but Herschel heard it from the man himself, when the two became fast friends online two years ago. “There was a point when I was in law school that I was on IM almost every day, so we used to IM almost every day,” Herschel told The Advocate in a recent interview. Besides dishing on Aiken, this Survivor talked about getting the opportunity of a lifetime to be part of his favorite reality show.

Herschel didn’t just decide to try out for Survivor on a whim. This is something he’s been wanting since the very first season. “I’d been a huge fan ever since the first season, but you just read about the tens of thousands of applicants, so I never threw in an application because I thought it would be a complete waste of time,” he explained. “Then I was twiddling around one weekend at my desk, procrastinating, and I was like, ‘I’m never going to get this experience unless I at least try once to apply.’ One thing led to another and I finally got cast.”

Charlie had a pretty interesting strategy coming into Survivor: Gabon, as he told RealityBlurred before the season kicked off. He hoped to be the gay, white, athletic, male version of Cirie. So what the heck does that mean? “I wouldn’t be the most threatening person there but I wouldn’t obviously be such a weak link on the tribe that they would want to vote me off right away,” he said. So far, so good. He has formed a very solid alliance with fellow tribemate, Marcus, who also serves as eye candy for the Survivor contestant. Unfortunately, Charlie and Marcus won’t be showmancing since Marcus has said that he is straight. A bromance isn’t so bad though, especially if it takes these two all the way to that final tribal council.



- Gina Scarpa, BuddyTV Staff Writer
Source: The Advocate, RealityBlurred
(Image courtesy of CBS)