Opening Her Big Mouth to Get Back in the Hall of Shame: Jerri Manthey of ‘Survivor: All-Stars’

Jerri Manthey, originally of the second Survivor, is no stranger to the Reality TV Hall of Shame. She was inducted into the Hall due to her behavior during Survivor 2 and immediately thereafter. Since then, she has appeared on The Surreal Life and then came back for Survivor: All-Stars. In both cases, we saw a few flashes of the old Jerri, but mostly she presented a better public image.

Until the Survivor: All-Stars reunion.

You can read a full recap of the reunion here, but the main issue with Jerri went as follows: There was a lot of discussion/debate/argument about the way Rob Mariano treated some of his outside-the-game friends, specifically Lex, Kathy, and Big Tom. In the middle of part of this discussion – which didn’t pertain to Jerri whatsoever – Jerri butted in to say that the whole thing was making her sick. The audience was not very patient with that beginning and started to boo her. She asked to finish and the audience quieted down. Then she went on to say that the show is about entertainment, but that entertainment was coming a price – their friendships, their feelings, their pain, their suffering. At that point, the audience had heard enough and the booing really began in earnest. Probst pointed out, in brief rebuttal, that it has cost some of them their friendships. Another contestant pointed out that they all signed up for it voluntarily.

At the next commercial break, Jerri took off and never returned to the stage.

There is more to the story, as Probst questioned Jerri once again in the million-dollar special, but first let’s address what she said up to this point.

Jerri complained that they are all real people and this all came at a price. That’s kind of an odd statement coming from Jerri. Why? Well, this is the same woman who slammed the cooking of Keith, a professional chef. This is the same woman who claimed an honorable military man, Kel Gleason, was cheating. Were they real people? Or were they just pawns in her game? Or maybe they don’t count.

And before anybody points out that she said these things a few years back and maybe had a change of heart, remember what she said as she was helping prepare her tribe for the Survivor trivia challenge this season. She said that Keith couldn’t make rice and Kel got caught with beef jerky. Note that last part especially – “got caught with.” She’s still singing the same BS tune. And now she’s a hypocrite to boot.

Kudos to the other contestant who pointed out that they had all signed up for All-Stars. I’m still not sure who it was (it was a female voice), but Jerri, of all people, should know what she signed up for. This was the third reality show in which she was a major player. She knew what kind of attention went along with that.

In fact, she thrived on that kind of attention after her first stint on Survivor. Her place as the Wicked With of the Outback is what got her invited to be on All-Stars! It got her a spread in Playboy – with a nice paycheck to go along with it. It got her onto The Surreal Life. In fact, a great deal of her career since then has been due in large part to Survivor. But now suddenly she’s complaining?

But as I mentioned above, that wasn’t the end of it. Much of the first part of the “America’s Tribal Council” special was devoted to hashing out what went on with Jerri. Jerri said that she had opened herself up in a different way this season it had all seemed positive until she was booed. She also claimed that she was trying to say that they all need time and space for healing, which is not what she said, actually.

But host Jeff Probst (who has recently been inducted into the Reality TV Hall of Fame) wasn’t going to let Jerri get away with her antics. Apparently, she had complained to TV Guide about him, and they contacted him for comment. So Probst asked her flat-out why she was mad at him. She said that the audience was not kept under control and she didn’t feel “safe.” Upon further questioning, she elaborated that the reunion had always been a place for them to express what they’ve been holding back.