How Jerri Manthey survived Survivor

In television, you know people watch you when someone takes your story and uses it as a take-off of their plots. When GMA 7’s Kool Ka Lang went to Bangkok recently, it practically paid tribute to the popular AXN series Survivor (a Nielsen survey says it averaged about 17 million viewers) by making it the inspiration for its first overseas episode.

After all, Survivor has kept cable viewers at the edge of their seats week in and week out, wondering who among the ragtag group of people aptly tagged "survivors," will overcome obstacles and make it to the next string of challenges.

Last May 4, AXN aired the final episode of the series on the Australian Outback, ending a protracted cliffhanger that tested the Survivors’ brains, stamina and knack for beating all odds, including a harsh environment.

One of those who figured prominently in the series was 30-year-old budding actress Jerri Manthey, easily the most "hated" person on the team because of her admittedly aggressive way of playing the Survivor game.

She and the rest of the gang will be seen one more time on TV as AXN airs the special Survivor Back From the Outback tomorrow, first at 1 p.m. and then at 8 p.m.

The special will see the 16 survivors returning to their home, family, friends and jobs, and readjusting to normal life. They reflect on what they’ve learned from their experience and how they’ve changed as well.

Interviews with members of the first Survivor series will see them commenting on the performance of their successors. This should prove interesting, considering that these survivors went through hell and high water in the rugged Australian Outback, as Jerri herself narrates in a recent interview.

But first, a look at Jerri and how she managed to shine the way she did in the highly-competitive game.

This self-confessed army brat (her father served 28 years in the US army) has the discipline of someone used to the rigors of military life. With adventure in her eyes, Jerri would grab her backpack, stuff her now-familiar blue bikini in it, and hie off to places remote and rugged.

No wonder that when she went to the Australian Outback for Survivor, Jerri felt so much at home – it reminded her of a place in her native Los Angeles which she’d frequent simply for adventure’s sake.

All that moving around (as a child, she moved with her family every three to four years, spending 12 years on various Army bases in Germany) has taught Jerri another vital lesson for Survivor and life for that matter: the value of adjusting. "Moving around every couple of years taught me how to read people fairly quickly and how to make friends," she says.

Thus did Jerri make a couple of friends in Survivor, people she will surely get in touch with, long after the memories of those unforgettable weeks have passed. She and Colby, for instance, have become close, some people are actually asking her if there is any romantic involvement between them.

"We are friends but there is no romantic involvement. It will never happen. Colby is much younger than me, and I need someone stronger," she replies.

The vocal Jerri describes the no-nos as far as men in her life are concerned.

"When a man watches the show (Survivor) and feels intimidated by me, and doesn’t approach me for that reason, that’s not the kind of man I want in my life."

That strength of character had a price. Jerri was 19 when she got married and 20 when she and her husband split up. And, just when she thought she and the guy had become friends again, Jerri read about the story of their relationship in the National Enquirer, courtesy of her husband.

Nothing could have been more hurtful to someone as young as Jerri was back then. But, like the typical survivor, she picked up the pieces of her broken marriage and moved on.

Today, Jerri is getting offers to audition for this and that performance, thanks to her exposure in Survivor.

Did she actually join Survivor it as a stepping stone in her acting career? Jerri, honest as usual says that was not the idea when she applied at first. It was more of the prospect of "stretching myself physically and mentally."

As she went along and realized how popular the series is though, Jerri admits she realized how being in Survivor can help her in her acting career.

"I was able to get into doors of places I wouldn’t have been in before," she admits.

Up in the agenda is a play casting her as a 25-year-old woman trying to be an actress and dating an influential 70-year-old businessman to get her way. The plot, Jerri admits, has parallels in real life, and she describes the role as very interesting.

Surely, Survivor has changed Jerri Manthey’s life – opened newer adventures she never thought possible she surfed the net, e-mailed friends, wrote in her journal and did other things that have become routine in her life.

She – and her day-to-day life her fellow Survivors – will never be the same again, even as they move on, and try to live as normally as possible after that one big adventure that shook their lives.