It was only a year ago last fall when Nick Brown, a second-year student at Harvard Law School, received word that he had been chosen from a pool of 50,000 for prime time’s most successful reality TV show. Surviving past the merger and outlasting nine of his fellow survivors, Nick became the first member of the “Survivor” Jury, the body that ultimately chooses the game’s winner. Now, back at the Law School, Nick looks less like a celebrity and much more like the overworked overachiever.
“When you’re there,” Nick said, “it is very real, but when they bring it back on television they have to condense every three days into about 45 minutes. Naturally, it comes out highly edited.” And editing did not do Nick well. He came across looking like a lazy and unhelpful member of the Berramundi tribe. “That was the one thing that I didn’t expect. I mean, everyone knows what they’re getting into, but you never think that they’ll broadside you like that,” says Nick.
Other character portrayals in the outback were similarly inaccurate. Nick gossips that although “Elizabeth came off as everybody’s sweetheart, she really got on a lot of people’s nerves.” Nick adds that Stuff model Amber who seemed bland and uncontroversial was just as bland in real life. “Some people tried to use the camera as an opportunity to change their lives, once they returned. I think that Jeff, Keith and Jerri were the big camera hogs, and though the show wasn’t always nice to them, it didn’t call them lazy.”
“My downfall,” he says, “was that I was just too quiet. I never tried to be dramatic just to get on the camera.” He continues, “After all, getting a few more minutes on ‘Survivor’ is not going to help me get through law school.” But, it has definitely helped him score a few modeling jobs and magazine covers, not your typical law school fare.
For the other mysteries concerning post-show drama, Nick describes that once the tribe has spoken, survivors are shuttled to base camp, which in this case was a ranch four hours away. In the runaway Jeep was “an incredible spread of food and a psychiatrist to talk to you.” Most survivors are depressed after they are kicked off, and “it helps to have somebody there to talk to.” After intensive sessions with the shrink, Nick caught up on news of the presidential election and read the entire Lord of the Rings series. He spent time with Jerri and Amber, who were kicked off just days after him. “The better I got to know Jerri, the less I liked her. But Amber and I chilled a lot and had a great time,” Nick says.
As for how his life has changed since Survivor, he “gets into a lot of clubs for free, and gets some dinner reservations, but I’m still in law school and that hasn’t changed.” Nick’s life seemingly revolves around school and his future service in the army, the same goals that he had before he left. “You can ride it for a year and then you let it go,” Nick said. “I don’t think that it is a good idea to completely change your life. Both Colby and Jeff are now taking acting lessons and Mike mostly does inspirational speaking.”
On to “Survivor III” in Africa, Nick notes how the show’s casting of more middle aged people probably makes socializing more difficult. “Also, they’re in a natural game reserve with worse water and no bathing. That was a big deal for us, and the lack of water there makes everything more difficult. We could also fish to supplement our food. That isn’t an option for them,” Nick says.
Nick predicts that Survivor is actually in its last leg and that “Survivor IV” will be the final chapter in the series. “Too many are being made,” he says. “A lot of them are good but nobody watches them, like ‘The Amazing Race’ on CBS, which was actually good to watch. People just aren’t watching it as much anymore.”
But people watched Nick, and he expects that his fifteen minutes of fame will help him get a job as an army lawyer. “At least it gives us something to talk about in the interview.”
