Published: January 26, 2006 11:34 pm            

Reality bust

The motto for “Survivor” is “outwit, outplay, outlast,” but I was just plain out of luck Thursday at The Summit.

The mall-turned-ghost town-turned-mall-again hosted an open casting call for the mother of all reality shows, CBS’ “Survivor.” The show pits man vs. woman vs. nature in remote locations around the globe, with the winner getting $1 million.

The audition, sponsored by The Summit and WIVB-TV Channel 4, asked applicants to explain on camera, in two minutes or less, why they’d make the ideal “Survivor” competitor. If anyone piques the interest of the CBS casting directors, they’ll be one of about 800 people chosen for secondary interviews in various cities around the country.

From there, about 48 semi-finalists will be chosen and flown to Los Angeles on CBS’ dime for final interviews. The cast for the 13th season of the show, which is scheduled for filming this summer, will be chosen from that group. A typical season features about 16 cast members.

The line — at one point several hundred people deep — was cut off at 2:30 p.m., after about 250 people submitted their applications.

Niagara Falls resident Tina Jordan was one of the lucky few who actually got an audition. She said she was just planning to be herself during her two minutes on camera. Once homeless and living on the streets, Jordan said she’s already proven that she’s a survivor.

“I’ll do just about anything I can to survive,” she said. “I’ve done it before, and I’ll do it again. But this time I’ll be doing it for money.”

Some people see it as a chance to win big money and a chance to get their 15 minutes of fame. Me, I saw it as a chance to get another seven weeks’ vacation from work. (Last year, I pulled that off with a little thing called “maternity leave.”)

I told my boss, Greater Niagara Newspapers managing editor David Arkin, to plan for me to have the summer off. He laughed and said he’d pencil it in. I questioned the “pencil” part at the time, but now I’m sure he’s quite glad he didn’t use the permanent marker I suggested.

Live and learn.

        

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