Jerri Manthey, Wicked Witch of “Survivor 2”

Since opening up the Hall of Shame, one of the people most often suggested for induction has been Jerri Manthey of Survivor 2. Even before that, she was on our list of people who would eventually be inducted. Why? Well, it’s hard to even know where to begin. But Jerri has done so many shameful things – both during and after the show – that there is no doubt she has a rightful spot here.

Let’s begin early in the show. By the first episode she was already grating against Keith, and by the second episode, she would begin her torture of the professional chef about his rice cooking skills. She would furthermore accuse Kel, the soldier with a Top Secret clearance, of being untrustworthy and breaking Survivor rules by smuggling in outside food (the infamous beef jerky). When Jerri incited the group to search through Kel’s belongings, and still they found nothing, Maralyn suggested they apologize to Kel. Jerri, of course, refused.

Her behavior never got better. In fact, it got worse. She continually harped on people and rubbed them the wrong way. The only one safe from her barbs was her little pal, Amber. Once the tribes merged, the trend only continued. She was always – always – trying to push her plans on others. Colby just wanted to be alone, but she had to follow him and force him into a corner regarding the Tina and Keith situation. She apparently has no skills in the interpersonal interaction arena. Even when her enemies (such as Keith) reached out to her to try to heal the rift, she just kept picking at the scab. She couldn't even pretend to be nice to people. Her natural personality just kept shining through – and it wasn't pretty.

Let us pick one example to go over in more detail, the time when there was a reward challenge that involved an obstacle course which was run, and won, in pairs – one guy, one girl – most of the tribe wanted to pick randomly. But not Jerri. Nope, she whined that she wanted to be with Colby. Well, duh! The others pretty much ignored her as she rambled on about how nothing is fair and so this shouldn't be either. Later, Colby noted to a couple folks that she never bothered to think that maybe Colby didn't want to be with her! Ironically, they ended up as a pair anyway from the random draw and even won. But the highlight was definitely when Colby was helping Jerri over a wall on the course and pretty much dropped her on her ass once she got over.

Even at the reward – time away together on their own beach – Jerri went on about how it was “meant to be.” Colby had to flat-out tell her that he would not be talking about the game, strategy, or any of the other people. He just wanted to enjoy a day off. Jerri, meanwhile, concentrated on how romantic the whole situation was, even telling Colby that it's "one hell of a first date" and that it's the perfect honeymoon, just without the sex. Needless to say, this was not in agreement with Colby’s assessment of the situation.

Taking it still another step further, Colby brought back (illegally, as it turned out) some pieces of coral for everybody. Jerri, not understanding what a nice gesture is, took this as a strategic move, saying that in a perfect world, the two of them would be in front of the jury together, but now he'd be one up on her from his gifts. Did she really think that everybody loved her just as much as Colby, and the coral thing could push them over to his side? What color is the sky in her world?

When Jerri was finally voted off (much later than many viewers had hoped), Keith was not the only person singing, “Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead.” The title of my summary and many other articles that week took the same direction. Even in her “final words” after the vote (which were certainly not her final words overall, much to our collective chagrin), Jerri claimed she saw it coming – which was utter BS – and that it must have been her remark about how the game isn't fair that set people off. Uh, sure. That was it. It wasn't that she had been a complete witch to everybody except Amber for almost a month. No, that couldn't be it.

But she was on the jury, which meant she got to capture the limelight for another few minutes. Before the question and answer period, she said that both Tina and Colby stabbed her in the back and she wanted them to be forced to look at who they were in the game versus who they think they are in real life. She showed once again that she still had no clue.

So she brought that cluelessness into the Q&A for the final two. She said they both had to make and break promises and manipulate people, so she wanted them to clear their consciences by bringing up any times of guilt, remorse, or regret for what they did to somebody else. Yes, that’s right – she wanted them to look at how they treated others. The height of irony. Of course, neither of them kissed up to her like she hoped they would. Instead, Tina even gave her a little slap by saying her worst day was when she searched Kel’s pack (which was, of course, instigated by Jerri), while Colby was sad that he had to vote off Rodger, Elisabeth, and Alicia. No mention of “Jerri” in there.

But, of course, that wasn’t all of it. She had more opportunities to be a bitch in the post-finale discussion. After saying that she never expected anybody to like her – and having Bryant Gumbel interrupt to say that was a good bet – she claimed that what happened on the show was separate from what happens in real life, and that it’s easier for some to see this than others. She seemed to be indicating that Kel should just get over it because it was the game. Meanwhile, some of the last words from her on that game were her talking about how Colby and Tina did things that were so terrible and it showed what kind of people they were. Yes, in addition to all of her other faults, Jerri is a hypocrite.

But it gets worse than just hypocrisy. She also said that she felt bad that Kel harbored such resentment and hatred towards her. Mind you, he never said that. In fact, just moments earlier, he specifically said he’d forgiven her but he just doesn’t like her. That’s not resentment and hatred. More delusional ranting from Jerri.

Then Jerri did the only thing she could to extend her 15 minutes of infamy – she posed for Playboy. As I noted in writing about her layout and interview, no matter how good looking she might be, you can’t help but see her inner bitch (which is made easier because it so frequently becomes her outer bitch). Even in the article that ran with her photos, any possible beauty was obscured by her quotes and thoughts, which accompanied the pictures.

Jerri talked there about how “bitch” has such a negative connotation and she wished there were some other word for “an aggressive, proactive, independent woman.” She added, “If I were a man on the show, I’d be a hero.” As usual, she was wrong. Instead of being a bitch, she’d have been an ass or a jerk or any one of many other insults that could have been used. Jerri said that people were “threatened” by her because she is a woman with power. No, she is a woman with a nasty attitude and severe social interaction problems. And people were not “threatened” by her, they just plain didn’t like her.

She tried to excuse her treatment of Keith by saying he gave her a hug and said he’d be dedicating his rice cookbook to her. But she could not even come up with an excuse for her slander against Kel. In a related Playboy chat, she said she was “very proud of the way I played the game.” It’s difficult to believe that somebody can be proud that she managed to piss off so many people that she ended up not only losing, but being perhaps the most-disliked person on television at the time.

As if to further underscore this point, Jerri claimed in the chat that her real personality did not come through in Survivor. So what is her real personality? Well, another person asked in that chat if Tina’s breasts were real or fake. Jerri, with her typical shrewish nature, said, “I really don’t care to comment on that.” And then, of course, she commented on it by saying, “I think it’s pretty evident what the answer to that question is.” Then she typed in that she was laughing. Ah, so “bitch” is indeed her real personality.

Why did she act this way, both on the show and after? Well, it has been noted by some that Jerri was likely never really in the game to win. She’s an actress (allegedly) and may have been looking for a way to jumpstart her career. As Kel told me during one of our times I interviewed him, Jerri knew that controversy causes air time – in other words, you get your face on TV more, and are therefore more memorable, if you cause controversy as opposed to just sitting back. What better way to cause controversy than to accuse the professional chef of bad cooking or attack the integrity of the guy from the military? But whether she was playing to win or just to boost her own career (which, incidentally, obviously has not happened), she still acted in a shameful manner. Speaking of furthering her career, it was recently announced that she is on the cast of the upcoming WB reality series, The Surreal Life with other barely remembered “celebrities” like MC Hammer, Corey Feldman, and Emmanuel Lewis. Will she bring the same personality to that show that she brought to Survivor?

Overall, Jerri was a nasty, mean, ill-tempered, petty, picky, evil witch who thought the world revolved around her and was oblivious to the feelings of others. If that doesn’t deserve induction into the Reality TV Hall of Shame, I don’t know what does.

David Bloomberg is the Editor of the Reality TV Hall of Shame, and can be reached at rno@pobox.com.

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