ALABAMIANS DODGE BULLET AGAIN ON TV

ALABAMIANS DODGE BULLET AGAIN ON TV

By MIKE BRANTLEY
TV & Media Editor

On the CBS reality show "Survivor: Palau" Thursday night, his fellow members of the Ulong tribe voted Jeff Wilson, 22, a personal trainer from Ventura, Calif., off the island.

That left Alabamians James Miller from Mobile, Ibrehem Rahman from Birmingham and Bobby Jon Drinkard from Troy, along with 12 other would-be sole survivors, playing the game for a $1 million prize.

The TV show, which stranded its players on a remote island in the western Pacific Ocean, airs at 7 p.m. Thursdays on CBS affiliate WKRG-TV5. "Survivor" divides its players into two tribes that compete in the game's physically enduring immunity challenges. The tribe that wins each episode's immunity challenge escapes having to vote any of its members off the island.

All three Alabama players are in the Ulong tribe. The other tribe is Koror.

The Ulongs agonized over who to eliminate. Miller and Drinkard were among those who expressed displeasure in tribemate Kimberly Mullen, 24, a graduate student from Huber Heights, Ohio.

But Wilson, who injured his ankle during a midnight stroll, urged his fellow tribe members to send him home. A self-described "team player," he said he was holding the rest back.

"I can barely put any weight on it right now without cringing my teeth," Wilson said. "There is no reason to vote off anybody else."

Mobile's Miller, a 33-year-old steelworker, said on the show, "We were sad. We didn't want to vote him off. He's strong. He does a lot around here."

Drinkard, a 27-year-old waiter who busied himself catching fish and knocking down coconuts during the episode, joined Miller in a failed attempt to send Mullen packing.

He said, "I don't think she understands the value of work. There's lots and lots to do. She doesn't really see that."

Miller in particular didn't like to see Mullen's flirtations with Wilson.

"Right now they're cuddling," Miller said earlier in the episode. "Next week they're going to be making out, sucking face and stuff. She is a woman, and all she has to her advantage is her sexuality. Kim's got to go."

For her part, Mullen offered during the episode's Tribal Council meeting, "I'm sick of being here."

"Survivor" has become appointment television for millions of viewers -- 21.64 million last week, according to Nielsen Media Research. Among those watching the show every Thursday in Mobile is Sandra Diaz-Twine, who won $1 million on "Survivor: Pearl Islands" in December 2003 and moved here last August when her husband, a U.S. army recruiter, was transferred to Mobile.

"I always watch 'Survivor, from No. 1 until now," said Diaz-Twine, who lived in Ft. Lewis, Wash., when she was on "Survivor."

She's still sorting out all the faces and names on the largest "Survivor" cast yet, she said before this week's show. "Palau" began with 20 players.

"I don't have favorites yet, except for the guy from Mobile, James," she said. "I like him. I don't know everybody's name, and I don't pick favorites until towards the end. Then you can say, 'That person deserves to stick around. I like the way he's playing the game.'"

The contest -- already filmed, but the results are kept secret until broadcast -- is set this season amid the 83 Palauan islands, just north of the equator in the Pacific Ocean. Beaches, jungle and protected waters, populated with palm trees, rats and relics from World War II, provide the backdrop for the game's drama.

Diaz-Twine said that in the first two installments she detected hints that Miller might emerge into a leadership role.

"People come to him for a lot of things," she said. "I think eventually he'll stand out as the leader of his tribe."

While she sees leadership traits in Miller, Diaz-Twine warned that too much authority too soon often brings unwanted consequences to players who are perceived as bossy.

"Everyone knows you don't go on there barking orders," she said. "Everyone knows you don't try to be a leader the first time around."

That's why Jolanda Jones, 39, a lawyer from Houston, Texas, was voted off in the first episode of "Survivor: Palau," Diaz-Twine believes.

While it's not always wise to stand out too much too soon in the game, Diaz-Twine said the "Survivor" producers look for players with "a fiery attitude."

"They like people who are outspoken and who are not going to take any crap from anyone," she said. "In order for there to be a lot of drama, they want a lot of A-type personalities. If everyone wants to be the boss, then you know there is going to be conflict."

When choosing from among thousands of applicants for each new "Survivor" season, the producers choose players they believe have the capability to win.

"They do, because they don't know who is going to end up at the end," Diaz-Twine said. "They don't rig anything. Nobody helps you out. You just have to go with the flow. I keep saying that game is 95 percent luck and 5 percent strategy."

Her advice to future players of TV's top reality show: "You just have to roll with the punches. That's what that game is about, just sticking around just a little bit longer."

"Survivor" has remained so popular because the show "always reinvents itself," its seventh million-dollar winner said.

"Yes, it's the same philosophy as far as going out to an island and having X amount of people," Diaz-Twine said. "But the people come from all different kinds of backgrounds, you know? And the game always changes. There is always something new. It's not always the same thing, so it's exciting."

This time, one difference she has noticed is the game's challenges are more physically demanding.

"These people are worn out," she said.

And the third episode brought the players only to the eighth day of their 39-day Paluan ordeal.