Survivor 43 contestant met her wife at a Xena: Warrior Princess convention
Survivor is a unique game that attracts unique people. So with season 43 of the reality franchise debuting Sept. 21 on CBS, we decided to find out just how unique this latest batch of contestants really is. And how did we do that? We asked them!
When prompted to tell us something interesting about themselves that made each of them different from the rest, we got a variety of answers. Many were inspiring, like Paralympian Noelle Lambert explaining how "I am the only above-the-knee amputee to ever play Survivor." Or Ryan Medrano telling the story of how "I was born three months early. It gave me mild cerebral palsy and that allowed me not to walk. My mom took me to therapy for four years until I was about 4-years-old, and I started walking then. But now I can walk, jump, run, swim, skydive if I wanted to."
That's awesome! Love it. And we also loved hearing from Cassidy Clark about how "I was actually born in the bathroom. My mom had a hospital plan for me, but when she went into labor, I was out within, like, 30 minutes. I was just ready to come into the world, I guess. So I was literally born on the bathroom floor."
Robert Voets/CBS The cast of 'Survivor 43'
But being a pop culture-obsessed brand, our favorite stories can't help but involve a few of our favorite things, which brings us to Elie Scott — a woman with a song in her heart and, apparently, a song in her mouth as well.
"I'm not really good at a lot of things," explains Elie, clearly off to a great start. "I don't have a lot of talents. But I love karaoke. I'm a horrible singer. I like to say God's greatest gift to this earth is making me a bad singer because I would just sing all the time if I was good. But I like to do heavy metal parodies of pop songs, so I'll do this, I think, really amazing screamo voice-over like a Celine Dion song. So that's probably the most unique thing about me."
Look, while Survivor is great, watching an hour of Elie doing a heavy metal rendition of "My Heart Will Go On" is even greater, and that needs to happen pronto. But while Elie definitely came to play with that answer, it does not win this particular round of Survivor stanning, because that honor goes to Karla Cruz Godoy.
Why? Well, try this on for size. "I met my wife at a Xena: Warrior Princess convention in 2012." Yes, you read that correctly. Not only did Karla attend a Xena: Warrior Princess convention to pay tribute to the mighty princess forged in the heat of battle, but she met her freakin' wife there! It's a timeless love story worthy of Xena and Gabrielle themselves!
Everett Collection From left, Danielle Cormack, Alison Bruce, Lucy Lawless, and Renee O'Connor on "Xena: Warrior Princess."
And this woman who is herself about to enter a land of reality TV turmoil crying out for a hero continues her story of power, of passion, and yes, danger. "My love of badass women like Xena inspires me to be badass and to be super strong," says Karla. "And so the fact that I met my wife Lisa at Xenacon just kind of proves that strength and confidence and badassery is in me. And so that is something just super random about me that I think people are going to find funny but also really cool."
Correct on both counts. We raise our chakram in honor of you, Lady Karla, for this incredible nugget of information! To see just how unique the entire cast of Survivor 43 is, check out the video at the top of the post. And may they all heed Xena's words of wisdom once they enter the battlefield known as Tribal Council: "The first time you pick up a sword, you become a target."
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