If you call Sonja Christopher on the phone, there’s a good chance you may get serenaded.
“You didn’t want me,“sings Christopher while strumming along.
“You didn’t want to do it without a preview to it.
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You thought that I’d be mean: imagine that!
Eating rat, knife in my back.
But I survived and I’m here.”
CBS
However, Christopher’s stay on the island was brief.
Host Jeff Probst has now snuffed 610 torches in hisSurvivorcareer, but Christopher’s was his very first.
But that early exit is not Christopher’s only measure ofSurvivorsignificance.
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Christopher was a big fan of the just completedSurvivor: Winners at War.
(Her take onchampion Tony Vachos: “He was such a loose cannon, it seemed.
And his hiding in the tree almost seemed laughable.
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But it turns out apparently it worked for him!")
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: First off, give us the update, Sonja.
How are you doing?
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I was doing that sometimes five or six times a week.
And also, people would ask me to play for club meetings or parties.
So that’s what I did, but I retired in December.
So how did you end up onSurvivor?
I was newly recovering from breast cancer treatment.
Well, I had always wanted to see if I could survive using only my hands and my wits.
We were taught mountain biking and kayaking and rock climbing and orienteering.
I was by far the oldest of these breast cancer survivors.
I was then 62.
On the plane after this three-day experience, I had two realizations.
One was, I can still do physical things.
Not only survive, but thrive.
So I came home and I applied.
It’s not the balmy air, or the tropical sea.
It’s the chance to survive and come out alive, on the island of Pulau Tiga.”
And I said, “No.”
And he said, “Well, Mark Burnett brought about 40 of the finalists tapes in.
And when Les Moonves saw yours, he said, ‘That one, I want.'”
When I hit that water, it was heaven.
It was warm water.
Warm, beautiful water.
I had been honing up on my camping skills.
It was like all of this now, it was here!
I remember feeling so wonderful hitting that water.
Then it took us two and a half hours to paddle that big raft in.
What were your first impressions of your tribemates?
What did you make of them?
I paddled for a while, but I got blisters on my thumb.
and da, da, da.
I couldn’t get a word in edgewise.
So, I was just working.
Older people have a strong work ethic, I think.
So, I’m loading things, putting up the clothesline.
The young people were quite outgoing.
I remember just that the younger people seemed to come together more.
I can remember Rich putting it up there, with all of his height.
And, “This is fine, Sonja,” somebody said.
Well, they just wouldn’t listen to me.
I felt like I was talking to my teenage son.
That’s way too high.
Get it down.”
So they jumped to it.
And so I decided, they’re going to find out who I am with time.
And that was a mistake.
Someone once asked me if I thought my being voted off early was due to ageism.
And I said, “Oh, no.”
And you know why is because I had no concept of ageism.
I was always good at sports and very active physically.
I just didn’t realize I was, to some of these people, an old lady.
And he didn’t care.
If he wanted something done, he’d bark at us in orders.
But I pulled back.
And so sadly they didn’t really get to know who I was.
Some backstory on that.
When I got to Borneo, right away they put blisters on my feet.
A crew member said, “Oh, yeah.
We got ours and threw them away two weeks ago when we got here.”
They had the same problem.
I was allowed to go down to a store and get another pair of sandals.
And very loosely tied and put together, Velcroed.
These people were strong young people.
It was like running with slippers through water.
I couldn’t keep up!
I had to yell, “Stop!
Because I was about to lose my grip on it.
And do you see why, with these loosely Velcroed sandals?
Big rims that floated, otherwise I’d sink.
I just couldn’t with the speed of the raft that the kids had gotten.
I couldn’t get my footing in this drag.
After that challenge, did you have a feeling that maybe you were in danger of being voted off?
This was on a spit out in the sea.
And so we were taken there by a motorboat.
On the way home, I said to my tribe, “I’m really sorry, you guys.
I feel I cost us that.”
And Kelly put her arm around me and she said, “That’s okay, Sonja.
That could have happened to anybody.”
I had a rather sleepless night.
I remember getting up to go to the bathroom as the sun was coming up.
The sunsets and sunrises were just spectacular there.
And Susan Hawk approached me, and she said, “Sonja, come here.”
And she started walking down the beach.
All the women voting off Rudy.”
And she said, “Nah, we like you.
We don’t like Rudy.”
The first thing I said was, “Should we be talking like this?”
[Laughs] I had caused us to lose, therefore it was only fair for me to go.
But when she said, “Nah, we like you.
We don’t like Rudy,” I thought, well maybe there is something to this social survival.
But then I said, “Well, I have to vote my conscience.”
What a stupid thing to say onSurvivor!Especially with Susan Hawk.
For the first time then that afternoon, Stacey started getting her rear in gear and doing some work.
Somebody else will do that.”
And that really made me feel not positive towards her.
But here we are the third day and she is helping Kelly now build a floor for our shelter.
So I thought, “Okay, in good conscience I can vote off Rudy.”
And, also, it was cool to be having a women front here.
When I got to the Tribal Council, I didn’t think I was going to be voted off.
How did that feel when you found out you were the first one voted out?
Well, it was three for Sonja and three for Rudy.
When the fourth one with my name came up, I thought, “Who’s the Judas?”
She said then, “She did it to me, too!”
But you also said, “Being the first to be voted out was a little humiliating.”
So after you had your torch snuffed, how were you feeling about the experience?
Well, I had mixed feelings, that’s for sure.
I was pretty beaten up.
You hurt your leg, which was bleeding.
Yeah, and that was only after I got on the island.
To this day, I still have bruises that don’t go away.
So physically, it was hard.
They don’t make people walk 90 minutes to Tribal Council anymore.
You all had it rough.
They also get a lot more food.
What was it like once it aired back on TV a few months later?
So I learned about sportsmanship, and that immediately kicked in for me.
I mean, yeah, it was tough, but hey, congratulationssomebody loses, somebody wins.
If somebody recognizes mewhich is nothing like it used to beand asks, “Weren’t you onSurvivor?
Now, how many people can say that?
I think it’s pretty funny.
Jeff Probst has now snuffed over 600 torches.
Because not many people remember the second person ever voted out ofSurvivor.
And so that’s had its rewards.
People would ask me for my autograph, and I’d feel strange.
It’s a mixed bag.
You must take some pride in that, right?
Do you feel a little bad for the first person that’s voted out every season?
Yes, I feel bad, but not becauseI’mstill feeling bad.
Probably I feel, “Why did [the tribe] do that?”
But usually there’s a reason.
I do remember one gal voted off in the early season, she was really a mess.
It’s hanging on my wall.
I really should divest myself of all this memorabilia.
Yeah, here it is!
And that’s the same one that was on the island?
But we couldn’t bring anything they said that would help us with survival.
But it turns out that they couldn’t use the song because of copyright things.
And that’s why they used it.
I did ask Rich to sign my ukulele at one of our reunions.
So on the back it says, “Hi Sonja.
Your ukulele brought me joy, and you always do.
Love, Rich Hatch.
As you look back on yourSurvivorexperience, what thoughts or feelings do you have when you reminisce about it?
Oh my God, what an experience!
I’m so fortunate to have had it.
The whole thing was so fortuitous.
And if I hadn’t been alone, I wouldn’t have tried out forSurvivor.
And that’s been amazing.
For moreSurvivorscoop, follow Dalton on Twitter@DaltonRoss.
