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Morning News

Journalist Discusses Time Spent With 'Survivor II' Cast

Aired January 25, 2001 - 11:41 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: The one man who spent some time with the "Survivor II" crew is Ben Pappas. He's a writer for "US Weekly," joins us from Los Angeles to talk more about that visit.

Ben, good morning.

BEN PAPPAS, "US WEEKLY": Hi, good morning, Daryn.

KAGAN: How hard it was to get to this Australian outback location?

PAPPAS: It was a bit of a trick. I would say about 20 hours a plane, five hours in a 4x4, past about three security gates. I'd say it took about 1 1/2 days to get there, and that's more time than I actually spent on the set.

KAGAN: Oh, really? So you had to be kind of a survivor just to get to the setting there. Now, what struck you about the setting compared to the tropical island that the first survivors were stuck on.

PAPPAS: Well, you can start with the fact that 10 of the world's deadliest snakes reside on set. It was about 105 degrees in the shad and this was in October -- this was the springtime for Australia, though. It was very hot during the day. It was very cold at night. It's a pretty austere setting. I think it's going to be a lot more challenging.

KAGAN: Did you get to meet any of the players this time around?

PAPPAS: Didn't get to meet them, actually, but I saw then in action. I would say they're a lot more telegenic, a lot more physically fit, certainly a lot better looking, and seemed to be a lot more comfortable early on. I was there on day five, and already they seemed to have a good sense of why they were there and were pretty determined to stay until the end of the contest.

KAGAN: They have the advantage of having seen "Survivor" the first time around, so they might have -- they might be playing the game a little bit differently. But we had Mark Burnett on earlier this morning, and he said that they tried to play differently, but in the end, human nature took over, and they were making the same mistakes and doing the same things as the first cast was. PAPPAS: I think that makes sense, Daryn. I think after about a week or two with no food, living in a stick hut in the middle of a very unfamiliar territory, you're going to really resort back to -- to the basics of human nature.

KAGAN: This is the cover of "Us" magazine this week, and inside in you article, the headline says that it's meaner, harder and hotter than before -- how so?

PAPPAS: Well, again, they had the benefit of watching the first go-around of "Survivor," so they were able to take their own notes and bring that with them. Before, I'd say maybe half or even more than half the cast of the original "Survivor" on a holiday -- they were happy just to be there. This time around the group was there for the million dollars. They really knew what they wanted from the get-go.

KAGAN: Do you think it's going to be as much fun for America to watch this time around?

PAPPAS: I think so. I think this time around, CBS wrote up a check to Mark Burnett for more than a million an episode, and he spent quite lavishly on the set and the production. I think there's going to be some more twists and turns. I think it's going to be really an exciting show to watch.

KAGAN: Clearly, by looking at those pictures, you had to have some good abs to participate...

PAPPAS: Absolutely.

KAGAN: ... this time around.

Are you familiar enough with the players to pick who you might think win?

PAPPAS: I think that it will be interesting to watch from the Cucha (ph) tribe player named Michael (ph), who is a 40-something salesman from Michigan. He -- out a sales force of 7,000, when he worked for 3M, he was number one, closed 70 percent of his calls, which put him at the top. That was three times more than any of the other salespeople. He really knows how to make a deal.

I think that in the other tribe, the Ogacarl tribe, Marilyn Hershey (ph) will be someone to watch. She's a 52-year-old retired policewoman. She was one of the first all women police patrol cars, in 1977. So she's certainly a tough cookie -- she's got a lot of Rudy in her. Those would be two to watch.

KAGAN: A lot of Rudy, and that, as you know from watching the first time, that is a good thing. I will tell you we had Mark Burnett on earlier, as I mentioned, and he said who he picked it to be in the beginning didn't win. So it is a tough call to watch to get to watch.

Well, Ben Pappas, thanks very much, more in "Us" magazine on this.

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