Hall of Shame Moment: Alex Spills His Guts, Ends Up on the Jury

Alex Bell was in a perfect position in Survivor: The Amazon. He was in a solid four-person alliance with only seven people left in the game. Four in the alliance, three outside. He had nothing to fear for over a week, after they had booted the other three – Matt, Butch, and Christy – he was easily the strongest and could probably have made it to the final two.

But then he screwed up. Big time. “Hall of Shame Moment” big time.

Alex realized that he was the third person in the four-person alliance. Heidi and Jenna would never vote against each other. But similarly, they would keep him around over Rob. So he was at least guaranteed final three unless Rob won immunity.

In that case, he could have tried to persuade Rob to form a two vs. two alliance within their alliance in order to at least force a tie. Had Rob won immunity, Rob would have been safe from any Purple Rock of Death scenario, so he likely would have been open to the idea.

Furthermore, even if he won immunity at the time to cut down to the final three, he could have still done his best to bring Rob along under the same scenario. Alex himself would have been safe from the tiebreaker and Rob would have been going otherwise, so certainly he would have gone along.

Or maybe he didn’t want to bring Rob to the final three. Rob is a good actor and Alex might have felt that he wouldn’t want to go up against him in the final two, but would rather go up against Jenna or Heidi. That’s fine too. Alex had the situation in the palm of his hand and he could have made whatever decision seemed the right one at the time.

But then Alex got cocky.

First he joined in with the other three – Rob, Jenna, and Heidi – in a premeditated display of laziness. Indeed, that alone deserves special mention in this Hall of Shame Moment. But it went further than that.

Alex decided to pull Rob aside and tell him just what would happen when they got to the final four. He said that if he won immunity, he would vote off Rob. And he assumed Rob would do the same. Easy for him to say considering that he has been considered a bit challenge threat while Rob, up to that point, was not. To say the least. This revelation struck Rob like a load of bricks. It’s not clear what Rob thought would happen, but it seems pretty certain that this wasn’t it.

Now, some have said it seemed to them that Alex was merely stating the obvious. At the final four, Heidi and Jenna wouldn’t vote against each other, so that left one option. And maybe, to Alex, that was what he was doing. In that case, I will retract the blame of arrogance and instead label it horrible strategy. As discussed above, what he should have said to Rob (if he decided he had to say anything at this point in the game) was, "Look, these two are never going to vote against each other. So we have to agree to vote against them and at least form a tie. Whoever has immunity will be safe in a tie situation anyway, so there is no loss involved even if we have to pick the Purple Rock of Death." Instead, he made it clear to Rob that Rob was going. Not very smart.

Others have suggested that Alex was playing for third place. After all, he already admitted that the women wouldn’t vote against each other. But I don’t think that’s what he was doing. He was assuming that he would have a good chance of beating Heidi and Jenna in the final challenge. I’m sure he figured it would likely be an endurance challenge of some sort, as that has been the way of things in the past. And I’m sure he figured he could outlast either of them. Thus he would get into the final two without hurting anybody’s feelings.

There is, of course, the issue of whether he could win immunity. We need only look back to Survivor: Africa to see how an older woman beat two strapping young guys – one of whom was a professional athlete! But I doubt that was on Alex’s mind.

There are two ways to go to the final two. You can win immunity and bring somebody or you can be the person brought along. Alex decided that he wasn’t going to be brought along and thus cut off Rob – and one of his options.

Whether it was by hubris, self-assuredness, or just plain poor strategy, the fact is that Alex turned himself from a solid top four or better finisher to just another jury member. He may be a nice enough guy, but in the game of Survivor, he had a true Hall of Shame Moment.

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

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