Melinda Hyder Quotations

I worked my butt off to get here. I'm not doing rock, paper scissors to decide if I'm going home or not.

He wanted his cigarettes, his son - he told us he made enough money and didn't need it. He made us all promise we were going to vote for him. (She did.) I really think that he had planned on going home all day, but he was part of a four-person alliance, and they talked him into staying.

Survivor is very cautious about making the game exactly what it is. They protect it. When they start the game, we don't know each other's names. We never heard each other talk, so we don't know where people are from. Just the fact that we traveled together and being around each other made you feel closer to them.

I was very happy to get back home. I was voted off on the sixth day. I was pretty much there a week.

I think one of the reasons I was initially interested was because it's a physical, non-subjective competition. I mentioned it to a few friends and they said, 'Melinda, you're not going to make it, you're not going to be able to do that,' and it made me mad. I took it as a challenge.

The 'Survivor' that's filmed in (the fall) time range and airs in spring, you don't know where you're going or where it's going to be held. They had taken our cell phones away, so our families didn't know where we were going. We weren't allowed to tell them. Once I got back home, I could tell my parents I had been in Panama. My sister and best friend knew I was going to be on 'Survivor,' but they all had to sign confidentiality agreements with CBS. I was not allowed to contact my family the entire time, and they pretty much watched me like a hawk.

It wasn't like being on an island, but it wasn't like it was a four-star resort either. Basically you're living with people you either voted off or voted you off, which isn't necessarily the most pleasant case.

I left (my date) and walked around and talked to people. He was really nice about it because he knows this is what I was doing. If I was walking to talk to someone I knew, I would get stopped by people at tables in between. They would tell me you got a raw deal, we're so proud of you. I would do it all again in a heartbeat.