Fort Smith : 200 seek audition for TV’s Survivor
Posted on Sunday, January 22, 2006
FORT SMITH - Bull rider Louis "Tootie"Napier, trampled within an inch of his life in 1984 by a bull named Old Skunk, feels uniquely qualified to join the next cast of the CBS-TV show Survivor.
"The bull broke nine ribs, messed up three vertebrae in my neck, and collapsed my left lung,"the 44-year-old Charleston resident said. "I am a survivor."
More than 200 devoted Survivor fans like Napier turned out at Central Mall in Fort Smith on Saturday at an open casting call for the hit reality show's 13 th edition.
With only 75 people guaranteed a chance to make a twominute audition tape, the truly zealous camped outside the mall Friday night in the hopes of earning a shot at the $ 1 million grand prize.
Tony Griffith, 42, of Greenwood was first in line when KFSM Channel 5 began shooting audition tape just before 1 p.m.
"I've been awake now for 32 hours,"the bleary-eyed, stay-athome dad said. "I'm that kind of a competitor."
Despite the drive of aspiring contestants like Griffith, their chance of appearing on the show, scheduled for a fall broadcast on CBS, is slim.
Though only 1, 500 people applied to appear on the first Survivor, between 30, 000-40, 000 should apply this year.
About 800 will get secondround interviews, and then a select few will be flown to California for 10 days of final interviews.
One area woman, Fayetteville firefighter Stephanie Dill, beat the odds and appeared on Survivor : Thailand, but she became ill early and was voted off the 2002 installment, so she didn't win the big prize.
In the end, said Casting Director Lynne Spillman in a telephone interview, only two or three open-call applicants will appear on the show, set to begin 39 days of filming in late May.
Independent applications and recruited contestants fill out the majority of each season's cast.
Facing such long odds, what traits does a contestant need to display to take to catch the eye of Spillman, who has cast every season of Survivor and The Amazing Race ?
"Sex, conflict, and humor - to me, that's the key to reality casting,"Spillman said. "There have been contestants who embodied all three, and they were perfect."
Lauren Wilbur, 21, a fashion design major at Missouri State University in Springfield, Mo., projected at least one of these qualities during her two-minute audition tape.
If selected, she promised to "disco-dance naked,"and "hook up with a hot, rugged, bearded man."
"There are lots of incentives if they pick me,"she said, after her friends mobbed her with smiles and hugs after the audition.
Other hopefuls touted their regional roots on camera.
Alma resident Paul Brown, a 42-year-old warehouse supervisor, donned a red plastic Razorback hat and called the Hogs so loud that it turned every head in the mall's food court.
"Wooo, Pig ! Sooey ! Razorbacks ! Arkansas, take me to the island of Survivor !"he yelled at the camera. "I will be the next survivor. You just don't know it yet."
Before Brown has a chance to make his small-screen debut, however, the newest edition of Survivor must air.
CBS broadcasts the first episode of Survivor : Panama - Exile Island at 7 p.m. Feb. 2.
Spillman said that the new 16-member cast is "one of the best in a very long time."
Headlining the group is a retired astronaut who logged 734 hours in space, and a former Lithuanian league professional basketball player turned California yoga instructor.
At the end of the day, Greg Thomas, KFSM creative services director said that the station taped 124 contestants in a little over three hours.
"That was pretty good since we only guaranteed 75,"he said. The tapes now will be sent to Spillman and her associates at Survivor, who will contact the lucky few who earn second-round invitations by mid-March. "It's probably easier to win the lottery,"Brown said, sporting his Razorbacks windbreaker. "But it's a chance."
To contact this reporter : jkrupa@arkansasonline. com
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