‘Survivor: Blood vs. Water’: How Candice, John Cody were cast, and the pair that was cut
We’re going to take a bit of a break for the day from our “Survivor: Blood vs. Water” castaway spotlight series (which you can read more of here), but for a very good reason: There is another interesting subject related to the show to talk about.
Typically, you do not hear about castaways who were alternates on a show, however it has happened on more than one occasion in the past. Perhaps the most notable instance of this is back in “Survivor: Fiji,” where contestant Melissa McNulty suffered anxiety right before the start of the game and did not take part in the show. Since there was not enough time that year to get a replacement out there, the season started with only 19 players instead of 20, and we had what is regarded now as one of the two worst seasons in the history of the show.
But this time around, we’re hearing about a different sort of situation that is very interesting, and also helps to make sense of many of the rumors that were online prior to the show starting to film. At one point, there was talk that RC Saint-Amour from “Survivor: Philippines,” who we still want to see back for another season, was on the show with her father, but they were not announced as part of the official cast.
So what happened? As Jeff Probst explains to Entertainment Weekly, a last-minute medical emergency forced them to be replaced with Candice and her husband John Cody:
“We had our 10 pairs out here and we were good to go. We got out here and RC and her father Craig — who we loved and wanted back on the show, RC for obvious reasons. Her dad is just as good. But when our doctors were checking them, medically his blood pressure was very high. And it was so high that we had to pull him from the game.
“I [sent an email] immediately to [casting director Lynne Spillman] and said ‘they’re out, we need [Candice and John]’. Within, I don’t know, an hour later, we knew what flight they were on, what time they were gonna arrive, we had the chopper over there to pick them up, It’s a whirlwind, but that’s Survivor.”
So Candice and John are therefore very lucky to be a part of this season, whereas we feel bad for RC and Craig, who got so far in the process only to be sent away. So this is just another interesting thing to think about while watching the season: How well the alternates fare, and how we think that the original two cast would have done.
As we said earlier in the article, click here to see our current batch of castaway spotlights, and we will have more to share every day leading to the premiere.
Photo: CBS