Survivor

Kathleen Sleckman, one of the supposed super-fans from Survivor: Micronesia, up and quit the game on Survivor last night.  I can't remember the last time this happened (Oh, wait – it was the first episode of this season with Jonny Fairplay), but whenever it does I get very angry.  I'm sick and tired of Survivor contestants whining about how hard it is out there.  They've seen the show, they know the elements are difficult and they know that at times it will be miserable.  I find it exceedingly hard to believe that the conditions on Survivor came as a surprise to someone like Kathleen.  Her quitting is doubly offensive when you consider the agony of Jonathan Penner just one week ago, who fought and did everything he could to try and stay in the game, yet had to leave for medical reasons.  There are thousands of people out there who would have gladly taken Kathleen's spot on Survivor – if she ever had any inkling that she might quit, she never should have tried out for the show in the first place. 

I'm sympathetic to the physical and emotional toll Survivor takes on a person.  However, you can tough it out, almost every other contestant has.  If you're really going to quit, though, wait until your tribe goes to tribal council and then ask everyone to vote you out.  That's what Chet Welch did, and that's what Jonny Fairplay did.  Kathleen, by quitting before the immunity challenge, not only let herself down, she let her tribe down.  You can make the “addition by subtraction” argument, but at this point in Survivor numbers are very important.

Something else I have no sympathy for is the homesick argument – it's one thing if you're away from home for six months or a year or longer (like, say, our armed forces), but Survivor is barely over a month long.  If you can't tough out a month away from home, I don't know what to say.  You probably shouldn't have signed up for Survivor.


-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image Courtesy of CBS)