early show 12 episode 13

Shane Powers' Early Show Interview

Video:

Transcript by James Barber for SurvivorFever.net  5.05.06

Harry Smith:  Well, we're down to the Final Four on Survivor: Exile Island.   In last night's episode Terry won his fifth straight Immunity Challenge, leaving Shane, the man viewers love to hate, holding the torch.

<video clip of Aras, Cirie and Shane confessionals>

HARRY : Shane, the look on your face last night was absolutely priceless. You had no idea.

SHANE : I had no idea. I know the game and I knew there was a possibility, but I had made my bed, I had boxed myself in with Aras and Cirie, obviously. I thought we'd hold firm.

HARRY : Really? Are you kidding me? Cirie's really pulling some strings out there.

SHANE : It's been amazing for me to watch Cirie's journey on the show, because when she got there she had no chance of winning, and it actually exuded out of her. She laid low, she worked hard, Aras and I sort of looked out for her. A couple weeks ago you could really tell something switched in her, and she was like, "I can win this." It's been really amazing to watch her journey.

HARRY : Yeah, really phenomenal. You know what, I looked back on the last week and you were surprised last week too.

SHANE : I was surprised because Danielle was supposed to go, and then...

HARRY : Yeah, Danielle is always supposed to go, and she's still standing.

SHANE : There was a bit of a flip-flop. I had created sort of a house away from everyone else called the Summer House, up on the ridge, that was allowed to go to.

HARRY : Did it have your make-believe Blackberry up there?

SHANE : It had everything up there, and no one was allowed to go up there, actually. I came down late and was not really in the loop, which was better for them, because I wasn't around that last 5 days much.

HARRY : One of the great moments maybe in the history of Survivor is the challenge last night where you got the opportunity to spend time with your son. And you know what, we have a Secret Scene that was not on the show last night. I'm gonna go ahead and show that now because you and your son, it's beautiful, it's really beautiful to watch.

<Survivor Secret Scene>

[ SHANE (solo; choked up): Watching the sun come up this morning, drinking my espresso, but then knowing my son was near, ready to wake up, come to me. It was unbelievable. It was like I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else on the planet at all. I wanted to be right there.

BOSTON : I'm so proud of you.

SHANE : I'm going to try so hard.

BOSTON (solo): The biggest flaw that would go wrong is that he has an alliance with three other people; if they turn on him, he's gone.
]

HARRY : Your son was prophetic. What a thing, to have your son's name tattooed on your chest, to watch you through this whole thing. That was the only thing other than cigarettes it seemed to me that you really yearned for, that you really missed. What did it mean for you last night to be able to have that reunion when you were out there?

SHANE : Well, you know, going through the depletion and having the 30 days of whatever, and then just feeling so wrecked, and having him show up and actually getting to be with him, it was sort of an experience that I would not have had on any other terms, on any other level. The love that I felt and the togetherness we had was really amazing.

HARRY : Now that you're back home and life is sort of back to normal, have the dynamics of your relationship changed, or you just value him that much more?

SHANE : I think you get an amazing amount of perspective from being on the show. It's like you're civilized and then they turn you into a caveman, and you learn how to deal with that, and then suddenly everything that's important to you is right in front of you. It just reinforced the way that me and -- the one thing I do want to say is me and Boston have this amazing relationship, but if it wasn't for his mother, Bird (?), allowing us to play -- she's been a real cornerstone of both our relationships and I can't thank God enough for her.

HARRY : Going back to the beginning of the show, you were flipped out from the second you got there. How many packs of cigarettes do you smoke a day?

SHANE : I smoke three packs of cigarettes a day. I had never tried to quit.

HARRY : So you went cold turkey, you were out there on the show, and the people were literally begging you to stay. I don't remember ever seeing that on the show, where somebody who wanted to leave, people were begging you to stay. I thought that was counterintuitive, but you ended up being such a great asset.

SHANE : Well, I think that when we first got on an island, the four of us we connected immediately, they were very - they wanted me to stay badly because we had had a safe, the four of us were gonna stay safe at least up until the merge, so it was very important for them that I stayed. I was schizophrenic at that point, I had not had a cigarette in six days, no water - the one thing you need to come off cigarettes is water - and I was literally going out of my mind.

HARRY : Well, for us as an audience and fans of Survivor, we really loved watching you go crazy.

SHANE : I'm sure you did.

HARRY : Every single second of it.

SHANE : I'm sure you did.

HARRY : Got any cigarettes in there now?

SHANE : I have plenty of cigarettes. Would you like one now?

HARRY (laughs): No, no, we gotta go. Thanks buddy.

SHANE : Pleasure.

HARRY : Great to be with you.