Besides his rugged-gorgeosity, Survivor SA host
Mark Bayly defs gets major pluspoints for being a Survivor fan of note.
When I hooked up with him to
check him out we also chatted about past seasons of Survivor and what his strategy would have been if he’d been a contestant in the show instead of the host:
Tashi: Who’s your fave Survivor of all time?
Mark: Rupert Boneham – the big, burly Rupert has been my absolute favourite.
Stephenie in the latest show, I loved her – she probably endeared herself to me more the first time though - but I recognise the odds she was up against in the second one. Like her, I was expecting her to get voted off first ‘cos of people thinking: “You’ve had your shot.”
The fact that she made it through to the final two – my hat’s off to her - she’s such a fighter but Ruperts’s character, I loved. The fact that it was a pirate theme and within the first few minutes he was stealing other people’s stuff to sell to get stuff, it just fitted so perfectly.
He played the game and you have to backstab people if you’re gonna go as far as he did but he just did it in such an amazing manner. Also he was a provider.
One of the things that has frustated me in the past with Survivor are the people who just skate along or pull on someone’s apron strongs and suddenly they’re a contender. I like people who, if they were left alone, could survive, and Rupert was one of those people and I admire that.
Having been involved in a production now I think any strategy that you have is phenomenal ‘cos there is no winning recipe. You can be an alpha male and you can try to hide it but you will be outed - at some stage your natural instincts are gonna take over. You can’t be completely lazy either because people get irritated and kick you out.
It really is finding your space in the tribe and allegiances that’ll help you – it’s almost impossible to say this is the way you should play it. I defy anyone who’s played it and won to say: “This is a winning recipe.”
There’s so much luck involved. You could be an absolute brain and lose all the physical challenges and the last few challenges are brain teasers and you get to the end. You never know how it’s gonna play out.
Tashi: Who’s your absolute worst Survivor of all time?
Mark: There have been a few people who’s names I forget that I’ve really felt coasted and were just annoying and did nothing and managed to go through week after week when people I really liked were being voted off.
He was very entertaining, but
Jonny Fairplay, the arch villain of all – he’d probably be my worst. Just his mannerisms were very irritating and lying about his grandmothers death – there is a place in the game for that – it's about deceive and he was brilliant at it but he niggled me as well.
Tashi: What did you think of Judd in Guatemala?
Mark: Man, man, man. He’s a character as well. I didn’t have anything against him. I thought he was good TV – that’s the thing, if everyone’s really nice it kinda loses it. You need people like him who are gonna be outspoken ad shoot from the hip, as misguided and delusional as he was saying he didn’t lie when he lied his way though.
That’s the thing I find - the people who get down to the very end who have to face the jury – the jury consists of people who were voted off six episodes before – they didn’t get down to the wire where they had to really manipulate and backstab.
You get all these people who are self-righteous saying: “I didn’t backstab like you,” and “I saw you backstab him,” but if they’d gotten to the final two they’d have had to as well.
You can’t sit on a moral highground saying you didn’t backstab. Of course you didn’t – you didn’t have to ‘cos you left ages ago!
Tashi: When you entered to play did you have any kind of specific strategy in mind?
Mark: I figured that I would be absolutely ruthless. It isn’t really my personality but I think you suspend everything for the show. When you’re watching the show, a lot of people are all about integrity and honesty and loyalty and stuff like that – in my very first interview I’d say: “I’m parking that right now. That is me outside the game – this is a game.”
It’s like in chess, you don’t apologise everytime you take somebody’s pawn – you smile. I’d be as Machiavellian as possible. I’d like people to think that I was great but I would be nasty – I’d probably end up being a villain and probably get caught out.
I just like the idea that it’s outplay, outlast. In the South African one our byline is “Trust No-one.” I’d ask everyone to trust me, but they’d be foolish to.”
That would have been my plan. To snake my way through the game. You’d obviously face the fire at Tribal Council but people forget. Sometimes, when you get to the Reunion and they’ve had some time to get over their anger they realise it’s just a game. You can’t forget that when you’re there.
Ends