Searching for the Truth - Survivor “Scandal”
I just can’t make this one make sense in my head, and I’m the type of person that just can’t let it go until I can make sense of it. True, I have a deep empathy for a good story, but it isn’t just that I don’t want to admit to being duped. I just can’t rap my head around why Denise Martin from Survivor would be lying about losing her job.
Sunday night on the live reunion show Denise mentioned her beloved school lunch lady job and said when she returned home, she went to the food service supervisor and was denied getting her job back, because of the fame of the show. They felt it would be too much of a distraction to the children. Instead, she was working as a janitor now, yet still did get a chance to see the kids in the hallways. She complained that she hadn’t eaten dinner with her family and hadn’t made a hockey game yet. Host Jeff Probst then said after the next commercial break that he’d been given the news that Mark Burnett wanted to take care of Denise any way he could, and was offering Denise $50,000 out of his own pocket.
No one could get over this on Monday morning, and everyone was blaming the school district. How could they be so cruel as to not allow her her job back, shoving her into custodial work from her favored lunch lady job? How could they deny her closer access to the kids that loved her? It just didn’t make sense that she would lose so much. Wouldn’t they want the kids to see this woman who had gone out to make something of herself and survived 38 days on the show being tough as nails?
The school district issued a rebuttal on Monday, as the superintendent said she couldn’t believe her ears watching the show on Sunday night, listening to Denise’s version of the story. She stated that Denise actually asked for and received a promotion before she left for China. She had asked for a promotion to a full-time custodial position making $10 more an hour. After her time on the show, she was welcomed back with open arms to the same position she left.
As message boards lit up with this news, CBS brought both Denise and the superintendent together on CBS The Early Show in an interview with Julie Chen. Denise admitted that the superintendent’s version of the story was correct. When pressed by Julie to address whether she was giving the money back to Mark Burnett she avoided the question like it was more of that balut that she just couldn’t stomach in either of the two challenges that involved having it on the menu.
Again, I just can’t wrap my head around this. Sure, I want to believe her fairy tale story, but it’s more than that. It doesn’t make sense. If you’re going to lie, why do you choose to do so in order to get $50,000 when you know there are people out there that can refute your version of the story? Why would you do it so eagerly for that reason, but you wouldn’t lie within the context of the game of Survivor? If you were so willing to throw a whole school district, your employers, under the bus for $50,000, why not be willing to throw three alliance members under the bus in order to switch alliances and guarantee yourself at a shot at the million dollars in the finale? It just doesn’t make sense.
Further, I set my investigative talents to work on this. I tired to call up the CBS video when Denise and the superintendent appeared, and I can’t get it to play. I searched youtube.com for anything on this story about Denise, and only got her original story on Sunday night and celebrity gossip. I looked at her bio on cbs.com and she is listed as “school lunch lady” in big bold letters, and it also talks of her recently opening up her own karate school. Her other jobs have included working as a short order cook and repairing video games. Where are the audition videos CBS used to have here? There aren’t any for this season. Okay. They have “Meet the Contestant” videos filmed assumably before the show started. Conspicuously, you can’t get to Denise’s. Clicking on hers gives you Dave’s, clicking on Courtney’s gives you Dave’s. Going in alphabetical order, though, clicking on Erik’s gives you Erik’s. What are they hiding?
Here’s what I’m suggesting. There has to be more to this story somehow. All of us reality TV fans know that the facts are sometimes stretched a little to provide a good storyline. They want a good story. No one is better at crafting a story than Mark Burnett. Is it possible that he had her career officially listed as school lunch lady, rather than custodian, because it made for a better sympathetic character? We were told Denise was one of the three finalists in the popularity poll, and indeed the facts show her at #3. Could Burnett have seen these results and known what a sympathetic character she was and asked her to create this lie on the air, offering her $50,000 to do so? He sure got people talking at the water cooler Monday, and that’s usually what he’s after.
There just has to be more to this story. It doesn’t make sense for her to lie at this point. What did she stand to gain? The popularity poll voting for the $100,000 was already finished. Lying about it on the air Sunday wasn’t going to help that at all. This was a job she asked for and received, so she couldn’t have been lobbying to get her old job back that made less money. Are we to believe she was asking for sympathy from the public risking her job? It doesn’t make sense. Because of that, I’m not willing to hang her just yet. This isn’t Salem, and it’s not a witch trial. I want the “whole” true story, not just what Mark Burnett wants us to know.
Comments about the results? Contact me at LauraBelle@sofachip.com
For more information on Survivor’s Denise, see SirLinksalot: Denise Martin Links.
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mr.p | Dec 19, 2007 | Reply
While I agree that it doesn’t make any sense, there’s another explanation worth considering: stupidity mingled with dishonesty. My spouse represents school custodians and lunch ladies in disputes with management, and she deals with it all day long. Slinging hash and cleaning up little boys’ urinals are not jobs that attract deep thinkers, by and large. If you had heard the stories I’ve heard, the idea of a school employee being dumb and greedy would surprise you about as much as a George W. Bush lie.
LauraBelle | Dec 19, 2007 | Reply
I’m not naive enough to think that stuff doesn’t happen. It’s just that it’s out of character with her behavior. Sure, if she was tired of cleaning urinals why not lie during the show to set her up for a million? And she had no idea MB would give her 50K. It served no purpose. You have to also look at her character as a 2nd degree black belt. A black belt myself, I know the strength and integrity it takes to reach that level, and it just adds up to more confusion. To reach 2nd degree, she is not a weak person that isn’t a “deep thinker.”
James | Dec 19, 2007 | Reply
Denise played the sympathy card from day one. She acted like she was the only working class person to ever grace the screen as a Survivor contestant. I belive she did what she did because that’s the way she always does things. While I do not personally know here it seems reasonable enough for me. For 38 days she made “poor Denise” comments around camp and then went to the live Reunion Show and just kept right on doing it. I don’t belive Mark Burnett needs the ratings badly enough to pay 50K for them. Survivor just completed it’s 15th “season” and seems to be going strong. GROW UP DENISE & GIVE THAT MAN HIS MONEY BACK.
Kathy | Dec 19, 2007 | Reply
I have heard mixed things about this. I saw a forum post where someone from Douglas disputes the superintendant’s claim(http://justjared.buzznet.com/2007/12/17/… ). I think the Superintendant’s comments are not quite as believable as someone who actually worked at the school and made the decisions.
I keep thinking that maybe she switched to a custodian, but didn’t necessarily switch to nights… I don’t know. I just want to believe she is telling the truth (or there is truth in what she said).
Linda | Dec 19, 2007 | Reply
I think that Denise saw the crowd and national exposure as a last-ditch effort to make something big happen. She probably didn’t expect the school district to care, much less jump out into the media with shields and swords drawn. She was looking pretty desperate towards the end…this could have been her last chance for a magical ending. I find it all very lame…so disappointing.
Survivorbk | Dec 19, 2007 | Reply
Here is something to consider… 4th Place pays $50,000. The runner up (in the past) receives $100,000. Denise gets 50 Grand for coming in 4th place. So was Mark Burnett presenting her with what she was owed anyway and playing it off to the viewers like he was giving her a gift?
Jen | Dec 19, 2007 | Reply
Denise was definitely playing the ‘poor me’ card from day 1, and it annoyed me considerably.
When her lie was exposed, it further exposed her character to me, simpleminded & dishonest. Also, why did she lie at the finale about why she wore her hair in a mullet style when she wasn’t currently a lunch lady?
Lastly, I have serious doubts about her being a black belt. Her exhibition for the monks seemed disjointed.
LauraBelle | Dec 19, 2007 | Reply
Jen, black belts come in all abilities, sizes, and shapes. I don’t know if you have background in martial arts at all, but her style, kenpo karate, is one built on self defense, with forms, self defense sets and techniques. I have studied kenpo and taken seminars in it as well. I’m a black belt in tae kwon do, and I can tell you I don’t have the same abilities as the 17 year old black belt in our school. True martial arts has nothing to do with how good you look.
w | Dec 20, 2007 | Reply
well, now I know not to be impressed when someone tells me they’re a black belt. You can be a black belt and still suck!
LauraBelle | Dec 20, 2007 | Reply
And now we know not train you!
susan | Dec 20, 2007 | Reply
Let’s face facts here - we’re not talking about the most education, eloquent person in the world. If she were, do you think her 2 job options would be lunch lady and custodian?
Courtney stated in an interview that Denise had told all of the contestants in China that she was a janitor - since cameras are on them all the time, don’t you think the staff of the show new as well?
Poor language skills are to blame here - and possibly some bad coaching from Burnett or other staff members. Had she said, “I lost that opportunity” instead of “I lost that JOB” - it would have been better understood.
Denise wanted to go back to the lunch lady job, but it didn’t work out. I think it says a lot about her that she was willing to give up extra money in her pocket in order to spend more of her day with her children.
Besides, if Burnett felt that the $50k was given to the wrong person or for the wrong reason, don’t you think he’d have made a statement saying so? He’s getting a ton of publicity for relatively short money.
Because of all the pressure and bad publicity she’s taken personally, the money has been donated to an AIDS foundation.
We all love a villain - and this season didn’t really have one. Since our million dollar winner was too cute to be mad at for lying and manipulating all season long - we’ve picked the player that the 3 liars didn’t want in their final 3. Go figure…