On last night’s season finale of Survivor: Gabon, Bob Crowley was named the winner, picking up 4 votes in the final tribal council to defeat Susie Smith, who earned 3 votes. Jessica “Sugar” Kiper, who was the third finalist, did not earn a single vote. Bob had several close calls this season, and was often the target for elimination, but he pulled out win after win in individual immunity challenges. His most crucial was a tie-breaking fire making challenge at the second to last tribal council on last night’s episode. At the reunion show, he found out that he was not only the winner, but fan favorite, and picked up an extra $100,000 on top of his $1 million grand prize. Today, he spoke to BuddyTV in an exclusive interview.
Tell me what this day has been like for you today.
Tell me what day it is! Right after they read the last vote and I got to run down to my wife and kids, this evil, mean man from New York City grabbed a hold of me and took off with me and I have been doing interviews since then. I’ve been riding in a limousine around New York City, around L.A., flying from L.A. to New York City.
Well, what is it like to get the star treatment? You’re just this physics teacher from Maine and what has it been like to be a celebrity for a few days?
I’m starting to get used to it. It’s been fun. If you’d ever told me last February that I’d be getting out of a limousine in New York City and people would be running up and asking for my autograph today, I would’ve thought you were on crack.
Did you get a little nervous when Susie got 3 votes?
I was a little nervous is underestimating it.
Did it surprise you that Sugar didn’t end up getting any votes at all?
Actually, it did. I thought Matty would’ve voted for her. That surprised me a little bit. It didn’t surprise me that Crystal and Kenny didn’t vote for her.
Tell me what your favorite moment in Africa was.
Oh, I bet you could guess that – when I won the Sprint phone and I was gonna get to see a video of Peggy and I was sitting there on the couch with a beer and a pizza. Jeff had completely convinced me that we were gonna look at some stupid little video, which I was so glad they didn’t tell me Peggy was there or I would’ve hurt myself trying to win the challenge. I turned around and saw my wife standing in Africa, which I had no idea she was there. It was almost like a ghost had arrived. It was one of those moments in my life that is now burned so deeply into my memory, I will never forget it. It was the highlight of Peggy’s summer and mine. It was just a wonderful event.
When you look back at that final tribal council where the jury was able to speak, some pretty nasty things were said, not to you but to certainly Sugar and Susie. How did you handle that night and how do you feel about it, all this time later?
I think some of it has been smoothed over. I’ve never been real keen on that nasty behavior. Also, the stress of being on Survivor is enormous and the interaction that you’re required to do. I think Corinne said, “We’re forced to live with people we hate.” It was really very difficult for me because I liked most of the people on the show… no, actually I liked them all. I like some more than others but it’s very difficult when you have two people that you like a lot… it’s like having two children that are fighting all the time. You love your kids and it’s difficult for me to deal with and there’s nothing you can do about it. That was stressful, the distaste that they had for each other.
Did being on Survivor make you want to travel more, see the world?
It took a week for Peggy to get over to Africa, fly over to Africa. She flew to Paris, then she flew to Morocco, then she flew to Libreville, and then took either a helicopter or, I’m actually not sure, a boat over to the other side of Gabon. Then, she sat with me for four hours and then went through the whole trip going back. We never had a honeymoon when we got married. We still haven’t. I’ve been married to her for 28 years and I think, what I’d like to do, is put her back on the plane, fly back over to Gabon, and have a tourist’s view of Gabon, give her the honeymoon we never had.
– Gina Scarpa, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of CBS)
Staff Writer, BuddyTV
