Early Show Transcript
April 22, 2004
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QUESTION: Would you have ever sacrificed honesty and integrity to advance further in the game and would
you play differently a second time?
LANCE: I wouldn't have sacrificed honesty and integrity to advance further in the game. In my mind, only
three things could have happened after the merge: Sato was going to live and make it to the endgame together, Sato
was going to be torn apart and I would be torn apart with it, or Sato was going to be torn apart and I would need
one of the biggest immunity streaks in history to make it to the end. Once I gave my word to someone in this game,
whether they knew it or not at the time, I was playing for myself and them. Once we swapped tribes, I basically
promised myself that I would remain loyal to Sato. After Henry was voted out, two things could have happened: I
was going to be unanimously voted out, or Amy and Hogan were going to put their necks on the line to keep me there.
After three days of playing by myself and really just playing to keep the immunity idol at Sato, Amy and Hogan
said that they wanted to keep me around. From that point on, I felt that I owed them my still being in the game.
If they had just gone along with the original Kamiyans, I would have been handed my walking papers. Anything that
happened after that, was simply me making sure that Sato tried to stick together and take this to the end. In short,
Hogan and Amy gave me a reason to believe in Sato. If we had merged at ten, and it had come down to a final five
of Matt, Beth, Amy, Hogan, and I, I honestly don't know how things would have gone down. I know that I wouldn't
have cast a vote for Amy or Hogan. In my mind, I believe that Amy would have been the swing vote. I think Hogan
and I would have voted together and Beth and Matt would have voted together. However, even if Hogan had come up
to me before the council and said that Amy had approached him to make it an unanimous vote against me, I would
have gone to that same council thinking that I would be going back to camp after the vote. I simply trusted so
much in Amy and Hogan that I was confident that they would never write my name down unless I pleaded with them
to or it was the final three. I put a huge amount of trust in the two of them, but they earned my trust. I was
planning on the three of us being the final three from the thirteenth day on. I would not play differently a second
time. I enjoyed playing the game the way I did, and I don't see any reason to change what worked pretty well for
me the first time around.
QUESTION: You (as well as Bella and Amy) were one of the only ones who saw Joni as the player she really
was and were actively trying to get her out. How come more people didn't see the light or buy into a plan to get
rid of her?
LANCE: I can't speak for any other players, but I will at least try to give my best guesses at why Joni
might not have been targeted as much as I thought she should have been. From my standpoint, the original vote for
Joni at the third council was purely because I wanted Sato to stick together and that's where it looked like the
vote was going. The light bulb went off in my head that Joni had to be gotten rid of when she threw the sixth immunity
challenge and voted with Chris to get rid of Amy. The night before the vote, Chris and I had ultimately told each
other that we would be voting for one another. Amy was in the chat when we did this, and she really couldn't give
a straight answer that night on what way she was going. I know that to come back from a day of seeing two of your
good friends in the game and be hit with something like that was a major blow, so I really couldn't blame her.
However, I was fairly certain that Amy and I would be voting for Chris and Chris and Joni would be voting for me.
I approached Hogan and just tried to point out the positives of sticking with Sato. As it turns out, he did. But
the thing that really got me was that Chris and Joni voted for Amy. Once Joni had cast that vote for Amy, I knew
that I'd never be able to trust her in this game. She'd voted for Amy over me, which I just didn't understand.
I found out that Hogan had an agreement with Joni, where she would vote with Sato if he voted out Matt. Unfortunately,
I found this out after the council. Hogan stuck with Joni in large part because I believe that I never got close
enough to him. I blame this a lot on our schedules because we were just never able to be online much at the same
time. However, I was closest to Hogan out of all the Satos at that time, and I should have taken it upon to myself
to make sure that he would be voting for Joni without a shadow of a doubt. He had an agreement with her, and he
wasn't breaking an agreement with me. So, I think Hogan did view Joni as a player, but honesty and integrity were
more important to him. I respect him for that, and am proud that he was able to leave the game with all of his
integrity still intact. Personally, I've heard arguments from both sides, and I don't think Joni would have voted
for a Kamiyan, even if the target had been Mike. She would have been going against her supposed closest alliance
member, Michelle, if she had done so. It would have been almost as negative as casting a vote for Michelle. So
I see no strength in that argument. Plain and simple, I knew she couldn't be trusted and was playing a win-at-all-costs-game
after that sixth tribal council.
QUESTION: After all is said and done, do you still hold a grudge against the way the Kamiyas played the
game? After reading the episodes, has your stance softened on them any?
LANCE: On a game level, the Kamiyans stuck together for three straight tribal councils after Ryan was voted
out. I tip my cap to them for being able to do that because that is exactly what I was trying to do with Sato.
However, in order to originally gain their majority at the merge, they had to take the game out of Beth's hands.
I didn't think they earned the advantage that they had. Thoughts of throwing the challenge did dwell on me and
really made me think, so I can't place full blame on them. But thinking and actually taking action are two different
things. When we were down to six, Kamiya had a four to two advantage, if you go by original tribal lines. It was
clear as day to me that you just stick along tribal lines and pick off the remaining members. Once Hogan was eliminated,
and all ties between him, Joni, and a few other members of Kamiya were cut, I viewed it as a clear and easy pagonging
for them. I know that they had promised Amy a few things, but I really took those with a grain of salt. I never
understood and still don't why Michelle had to bring up work ethic as a reason to get me out. She threatened to
cut off my food supply, for pete's sake! I actually went back and checked each day since the merge, and every single
day I put in the same amount of effort as Michelle. In short, I couldn't believe that she didn't trust enough in
her other tribe members to be able to just vote me off for the reason that I was a Sato and always would be. She
had to question my work ethic, and even tried to convince Amy of this. If I had been in the majority, I wouldn't
have turned to the chitter-chatter of trying to stack on more reasons to vote someone out. It just seemed childish
to me. I hold no grudges from the game, but some of the unnecessary actions in the game did seem outlandish.
QUESTION: You seem to have a different opinion of Henry than the rest of the cast. Why do you think he divided
your tribe so much? And do you feel like he was portrayed accurately in the story?
LANCE: I can't speak about any divisions that may or may not have been caused by anyone early on at Sato
because I was the one to vote on the outskirts twice. If anyone wasn't going with the flow early on, it was me.
As far as portrayal in the story, all words and confessions are accurate, so you have to take those in whatever
way you want to view them. Henry and I are both fans of sports in general, so that really served as a common ground
to build a friendship on in this game. I think that in a game like this, it is almost necessary to have something
to build a relationship or agreement upon. Sports served as that foundation for our friendship in the game. In
truth, if Henry had said that he was voting against a member of Sato, I wouldn't have voted with him though. At
that point in the game, it was all about keeping the majority of Satos on our tribe. I am tired of all the negative
comments about Henry though. I've never been a firm believer in kicking someone when they are down or they aren't
there to defend themself. When the heat is put on Henry for little things like not putting in very high effort
in the first challenge, I think that is bologna. A little known fact is that he wasn't even our Least Valuable
Player in the challenge, so I think you can look at anyone and say if they had tried harder we would have won.
Even though I cast a vote for him at the first council, Henry is a good guy.
QUESTION: You seemed to talk a lot about being "out of gas." Can you explain what this meant?
Was it a matter of will points or was your energy level just low?
LANCE: You know, that is a great catch on your part. It's actually one of the phrases that I use a lot in
everyday life. When a pitcher is extremely tired and looks like he is going to have to come out of the game, the
announcers will often say that he is "out of gas" or "running on fumes." I'm not sure if I've
ever heard it used outside of the sports environment, so that could explain it if it might have been difficult
to understand. After the first individual immunity challenge, I had an insanely low amount of will points. If you
had a low amount of will points, your energy apparently dropped steadily also. Because of this, after that first
individual challenge, I had few will points and my energy was getting shot every day. In real life, I was strong
and kicking. However, I realized that if I was really out there with those stats, I would be feeling the effects
of the environment everyday. Thus, in my confessionals, I addressed the fatigue that would gradually set in. My
way of doing this was by saying that I was "out of gas" or "running on empty."
QUESTION: Did the other players ever find out you wrote a column at Survivor-Central? Was this ever an issue?
LANCE: I think it was Amy who originally asked me if I wrote a column for the site. I was honest and told
her that I did, and it gradually spread throughout the tribe. It really is such a small part of my day to day routine
that it never served as much of an issue for me. I never saw it serve as much of an issue for anyone else either.
All it really meant was that Murtz knew a little about me before he even came over to Sato.
QUESTION: What do you think would have happened if you started on Kamiya? Would morals and values have been
important to you then? Was there anyone you really had a connection with there?
LANCE: If I had started out on Kamiya, I believe that I would have been making the interview rounds much
earlier than I ended up doing. It is tough to just go out on a limb and guess what would have happened because
I don't know whose place I would have been put in. However, I can easily say that I very well could have been the
first one out over there. If I had been around when everything kind of started out with Danielle, I wouldn't have
been able to put her down repeatedly and intentionally. It wasn't part of the game I wanted to play. This could
have been a sign to Murtz that I wouldn't be loyal to any alliance. That could have led to an early departure also.
I would have played the exact same way I did at the beginning of the game on Sato. I think there is a chance I
could have formed an early friendship with Mike if we had started out on the same tribe, but I'll never know. It's
all speculation in the end, but I'm glad that I started out and remained a Sato.
QUESTION: Do you think Mike was being a good guy or just sucking up?
LANCE: In the game, I think that Mike fell somewhere in between those two characteristics. He was playing
for jury votes from the get go, which is obvious now in the story. At the same time, I enjoyed my chats with him
and felt that the agreement to give each other a heads up was really the best we could offer each other under those
conditions. Mike was loyal to Kamiya and I was loyal to Sato. There was a minimal chance of us ever joining forces,
and I believe that we both knew that in the back of our heads. I know I did. I never counted on Mike's vote because
as long as Kamiya had the numbers, it seemed logical that he would remain with them. He said some comments in the
last episode about pushing me into a fight and what not. In all truth, it was Amy telling me that Michelle had
been "trash talking" my work ethic that really made me just start to question the motives of Kamiya.
If another Kamiyan had been on the chopping block instead of me, this would have been the one scenario where I
could have seen Mike joining with Sato in order to remain in the game. However, I think several times, Mike tried
to say in confessionals that things went exactly the way he planned. I think this was true to some extent, and
also an exaggeration in order to come off as more of a player in another. Mike honored the agreement though, as
did I, and that was all I could ask for from him.
QUESTION: What's your take on Isabella and Murtz's strategies of playing the game under an alias?
LANCE: It is kind of interesting because with me they handled it in two different ways. With Murtz, after
our first conversation we didn't talk much after. This can either be chalked up to not being strategically aligned
or Murtz just realizing that I wasn't the person to really force the issue on. With Isabella, she just seemed to
want to know everything about me. She seemed to enjoy playing the part, almost too much so.
QUESTION: What response do you have to the people and castaways that said that you never played the game,
or made any major power moves?
LANCE: I really don't mind any comments about never playing the game or making any major power moves. I
stand by the way I played, which is all that matters to me. I appreciate all those, who supported me throughout
the season and to those who served up some compliments. At the same time, if someone thinks I didn't play the game,
they have the right to their opinion. If helping keep Amy around and keeping Sato together wasn't seen as a power
move, then so be it. When I sent that e-mail to Hogan and that's all he had to go on right before the vote, I viewed
that as playing the game I'd set out to play. The number of Original Satos never outnumbered the number of Original
Kamiyas in this game. If that had happened, it would have been a dream come true. But for voting outside of the
majority five times, and sticking around until the final six, I felt like I did very well for myself. It took me
awhile to get moving, but I knew at the beginning that if I could just hang around for a little while, my word
would start meaning something in this game. Sure enough, it was noticed that I did stick by people who I was loyal
to. Because I still had the power of truth in my arguments, people were able to believe and trust in what I said.
This was a major part of my game and my strategy. Just being able to realize that people will give what you say
more weight and validity because of your past actions is a good feeling and one that I used to my full advantage.
For all you movie buffs out there, regarding my time spent in Okinawa, "I did the best I could while I was
stuck in that place, tried as hard as I could while I was stuck in that place, and had as much fun as I could while
I was stuck in that place." Anyone who can figure out where that quote comes from is a fan of good movies.
QUESTION: Has your opinion of any of the castaways changed since reading the episodes?
LANCE: My opinion of some castaways have changed since reading the episodes, but not all that much. Beth and
I never really got a chance to bond in the game, but she was always fighting for Sato over there at Kamiya. We've
had a chance to talk since the game ended, and she is just a great woman. I've also had a chance to talk to Murtz
a few times since the game concluded, and have enjoyed that. Negatively, I've never been a big fan of Isabella's
confessionals where she gets out of character and gives off a bit of a cocky demeanor. Whatever the situation was,
she seemed like that is exactly what she wanted to happen. I perceived it as her just trying to be a character
within a character at all times and never change face. It was almost like a show was being put on for the cameras
at all times. Everyone else acted almost precisely as I figured they would in the episodes.
QUESTION: Did you change your personality at all during the game, or did we see the real you for all 33
days?
LANCE: In the game, once I knew someone and became close to them, it was just easier to talk with them.
Some of the conversations that I considered to be favorites were later on in the game with Amy and Hogan. We were
able to talk about the game, but at the same time not stress over it to an unhealthy level. As far as confessionals
go, I really kept in the same personality throughout the game. I never got too comfortable with my position or
started talking like everything that happened occurred exactly as I wanted to in some master plan. I just kept
on keeping on, and tried to keep those around me positive.
QUESTION: What were some of your favorite moments?
LANCE: The first day on Sato before all of the alliance chat started was a great day, I thought. It was
great getting to meet everyone and just finding out where everybody came from. Everyone was so pro-Sato on that
first day. That, from a team standpoint, I think really fueled some people for that first challenge. I enjoyed
being able to talk sports with Henry while in the game. Once Henry was gone, I think I went the remainder of the
game without finding anyone that was really a sports fanatic. That was tough for me because it's something that
I thought I could build a foundation for friendship on. I also enjoyed the beginning of the nineteenth day, when
I realized that Hogan, Amy, and I were going to make that merge together. Somehow, Sato had pulled back together.
After that council, I really believed that we could be the last three people standing.
QUESTION: Can you pinpoint the exact moment that Sato imploded? Can you trace it to one specific event in
the game?
LANCE: Sato imploded the second that I signed off after talking with Hogan before the ninth tribal council.
I let things be and really didn't stress enough how Sato needed to stick together at this point in the game. I
realize that there was a 75% chance that a Sato would have gone home if it came to a purple rock, but that was
a chance I was willing to take. If we tied, a Sato wasn't going home that night, not after we'd been given second
life. Way back in the early stages of the game, I could either vote for Elisabeth like everyone else said they
were doing, or keep my word to a friend and vote for someone else. It wasn't a hard decision for me. I don't think
I really compared Hogan's situation to this until I had time to sit down and think about it. I didn't want anyone
pushing me into voting for Elisabeth at that first council. I had made up my mind. Similarly, Hogan was keeping
his word to a friend and I was really taking the same position that others had taken on me at that first council.
I was trying to force him to switch his vote. If I had built up more trust with him and he had been able to tell
me that he wanted to vote for Matt, I could have given my best attempt to save Sato as we knew it. However, I hadn't
built up that much trust, and Sato came crashing down. Out of everyone, I take the most responsibility for Sato
crumbling at that point.
QUESTION: Should Sato have booted Elisabeth? Since you were closest to her... why do you feel she was targeted?
LANCE: The obvious answer is that I don't feel Sato should have booted Elisabeth. She would have helped
us in immunity challenges down the road, or immunity challenge as it turned out. To me, she just seemed like a
good person. I enjoyed our chats and getting to know her. I can't honestly say why she was targeted because I was
never given a straight answer why she was booted when she was. After reading the story, it looked like she was
targeted for her closeness with Henry and her refusal to join an alliance without me in it. I also think that she
had a target on her back from the get go because others perceived her to be playing the sweetheart role. Any way
you look at it, I still don't think she should have been the first person to leave Sato.
QUESTION: Lance you talked a lot about Kamiya voting off Sato members one by one; pagonging them. (a) If
the situation had been reversed and Sato had the majority, would you have picked off the members of Kamiya one
at a time before turning on your own tribe? (b)Why would it be ok for Sato to pick off Kamiyas one at a time but
it was wrong for Kamiya to do the same to Sato?
LANCE: I did talk a lot about it because that is what was going on in the game. If it's going on, it's got
to be in the front of your mind. If that situation had been reversed, Sato would have stuck together until the
end. It's not even worth trying to change my mind on this subject. Amy would have been the glue that kept all of
us together. There was nothing strategically wrong with Kamiya pagonging Sato. However, the way that they earned
the rights to that pagong initially was what I didn't like. To throw a challenge in order to gain a numerical advantage
didn't seem like earning the right to be able to pagong a tribe. Call that strategic, call it playing scared, call
it whatever you want, but you have to call it something. I didn't think Kamiya earned the numerical advantage,
so the pagonging always left a sour taste in my mouth. Once we had a chance to tie things up at the ninth council,
but didn't, there was nothing wrong with the pagonging. I'm not going to sit there and support it since it's happening
to me. I was put in a position where I knew my time was up, so I'm going to talk about how displeased I am with
the way things are going in my confessionals. That's just part of the game.
QUESTION: You are a Survivor fan and write for S-C, so why did it seem to take you by surprise that people
would like and backstab in a game where this type of behavior is allowed?
LANCE: Many people were able to put aside the fact that there were other people with feelings behind the
screenames. I wasn't able to do that, so I saw no need to lie and backstab because I didn't think it was necessary
to win this game. The real thing that motivated me though was that I honestly believed that I could make it to
that final tribal council by just being straight up and avoiding the backstabbing. I wanted to show myself that
it could be pulled off, and I could be the one to do it. It was really a quest for me that I set out to do and
felt good doing. I didn't want to look back and say that I won this game by being someone that I was not. If I
was going to win, I wanted to be able to say that I would have played the exact same way out there on an island.
I also wanted to avoid the "apology rounds" after the game was over. I didn't want to have to approach
everyone and apologize for lying to them. I didn't want to have to say, "That wasn't really me out there.
I just did what I had to do to survive. You understand, right?" Again, I believed that it was possible for
me to make it to that final council, while avoiding having to do that. In my eyes, I wasn't sacrificing a part
of my game or hurting my chances, I was simply going to go about it my way.
QUESTION: Do you think those who behaved in what you perceive as "morally less" behavior in the
game are like that outside the game, or do you think it's possible that people can play within the rules of the
game, even pushing them to the limit and once removed outside the game into society, be nice people and live by
society's standards?
LANCE: I think that many parts of everyone's everyday persona come through in this game. I don't believe
that you can completely change who you are, put on a facade, and play the game as someone that you would never
be in real life. I think it was much easier for people to lie and backstab, not having to look anyone else in the
face. I set out to play in a way that would be accurate for if I was in the actual Survivor situation. Others might
have done the same, and some might not have. But I do believe that some part of each real person is really reflected
in the person they were in the story. For example, I don't quite see how slamming people with crude language in
your vote for them serves any strategic purpose. When you cast that vote, you know that you are going to be the
only person seeing what you write, while in the game. I do understand if emotions get the best of you. But using
crude language and playing up to the cameras while voting never made any sense to me. It only serves to knock people
down a peg, when it isn't even necessary. That is where I believe the real emotions and real characteristics of
people shines through the most, in those votes.
QUESTION: Who would you say your best friend(s) were in the game? It was never clear-and-cut, like Amy and
Matt. You had Elisabeth, then Henry, then Hogan. Also, were there any others that we didn't get to see?
LANCE: At different points in the game, I considered Elisabeth, Henry, Amy, and Hogan to be good friends.
The episodes conveyed most of these relationships. With Elisabeth and Henry, these relationships weren't really
allowed to grow for very long. Ironically enough, both Henry and Elisabeth were voted out with the help of Amy
and Hogan. Yet, down the road, I ended up forming very good friendships with them. Amy and Hogan had voted for
two of my friends in the game and I hadn't voted with them for the two people they wanted out of the game. You
wouldn't think that we'd end up joining forces and trying to make things happen. However, after the first two weeks
in the game, we were joining forces to try to take Sato to the top. Hogan obviously had the deal with Joni and
a few other members of Kamiya right before his boot. Amy still considered Matt her best ally in the game until
a few days after the merge. Some of these things are variables that I only learned after the fact. Nonetheless,
I considered both Amy and Hogan good friends for the remainder of the game and would have been to happy to be going
toe to toe with them in the final immunity challenge.
QUESTION: I don't wanna dredge it up again, but in your boot episode, you said something like, "Amy
is a lifelong friend, and always will be a lifelong friend," implying that you had known her, uh, lifelong,
or something like that. Did you know Amy coming into the game?
LANCE: I didn't know Amy coming into this game. What I meant by that comment was that Amy was someone I
could genuinely see myself getting along with and having a friendship with outside of the game. I was referring
to from that point in the game onward. You really have to know Amy to understand, but she was able to get along
with just about everyone out there. She is just a genuine person through and through. If you look at the original
members of Sato, I'd say that a majority of them would have fought to get Amy near that final tribal council. In
the back of your mind, something keeps telling you that you have no chance at beating her in a final tribal council.
And then that same thing keeps telling you that you would not be able to write her name down if the opportunity
arose and eliminate her from this game. You really had to be out there to understand. Believe me, I'm glad that
she was on my side for the majority of the game.
QUESTION: I loved your first column on S-C.com, about stereotypes on Survivor. If you could place everyone
on the cast into a stereotype, who would go where?
LANCE: You know, you bring up an interesting topic here. I think this just might be worthy of its own column.
QUESTION: Let's end this with some word association. I give you a word, you give me what you think of first.
LANCE: Sato - Simply the best.
Immunity - Missing out on it by losing to someone who had a 1 in cooking in a challenge that was partly cooking.
That has to take the cake.
False - Emma.
Honor - Hogan Mueller.
Challenging - Bouncing back from losing people that I genuinely liked in this game.
MARIO: Thanks for your time, Lance.
LANCE: Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to go take the 'ole bicycle for one more ride down Blueberry
Street. I just got a new coat of paint put on it the other day. Paint that is green. Sato Green.
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