‘Survivor: Cagayan’ castaway spotlight: Will Morgan McLeod’s cheery outlook help her?
The fun thing about going into a season of “Survivor” with all-new players is that there is such a feeling of unknown that goes along with it. Typically, you can pinpoint about half of the cast who you think are going to be good players, and most of them will either make it pretty far, or just go out before their time. Then, there are three other groups: Disappointments, people who you predict to be poor players who are, and surprises.
When it comes to Morgan McLeod, we feel pretty strongly that the former NFL cheerleader is going to fit into one of the latter two groups, since we don’t have much of an expectation of her at all going into this game. Maybe some of that is judgment based on many other young women who have played this game, but some of that also comes from her casting video below and some of the other details about her on CBS.com.
Name – Morgan Mcleod
Age – 21
Tribe – Solana (a.k.a. the Beauty tribe)
Location – San Jose, California
Occupation – Student / former NFL cheerleader for the San Francisco 49ers.
What she brings to the game – Energy. We’re at least sure that given her past experiences, she is probably going to be someone with a generally positive outlook on things when life is going badly, and someone who can fare pretty well in some of the challenges. You have to be pretty athletic to succeed pre-merge most of the time, and she also has that. Morgan also makes it sound like she quit cheerleading in her video in order to pursue and education, and this at least suggests that she is someone who is capable of making big decisions.
What could hurt her – The biggest thing that Morgan has to wrestle with is preconceived notions, even on a tribe where everyone is dealing with this very same thing. The way that she repeatedly brings up cheerleading across her bio suggests that she hasn’t really had that much in terms of life experience, even compared to some of the other young players. She doesn’t come across as someone who knows the game very well, and we don’t know if she’ll be able to handle being out in the elements if the weather gets bad or things aren’t really going her way. Based on her story of getting that cheerleading job straight out of high school, she’s probably used to getting what she wants.
Past “Survivor” comparison – Ugh at Morgan doing the obvious thing and comparing herself to Parvati, as if there is a list of three people from the history of the show for young women to choose from. Her other choice of Natalie Tenerelli is actually much more applicable, given that they are of similar ages, both have dance backgrounds, and neither one of them seem to be particularly devious players. Morgan says that she’ll do whatever it takes to win, but we don’t completely buy it.
Prediction – Like with Natalie, it’s possible that Morgan could get herself deep in the game thanks to another ally. However, we really cannot see her winning this game in a million years. We don’t get the dynamic personality from her that you need to be a great player. She’ll most likely be the first woman gone from her tribe, and maybe the first overall. While she may be fairly athletic, she doesn’t really bring anything to the table that is lacking with the other contestants, and they seem to be a little more tailor-made for this game.
What do you think about Morgan? Do you think that her cheerleading past is going to lead to her having a sunny demeanor in the game? Share your thoughts below, and click here if you want to read the rest of our “Survivor: Cagayan” spotlights.
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Photo: CBS