Survivor 41 spotlight: Meet Shantel Smith, pastor and game-player

When you think about Shantel Smith’s profession as a pastor, we understand the idea that she would come into Survivor 41 expecting to play a straightforward game. However, that may not be the case! In some of the early sneak peeks for the season we’ve heard her talk about wanting to be aggressive and not holding anything back when it comes to her gameplay. If she’s gotta make some big moves, she’s going to make them and we have a feeling that she’s going to deliver some great confessionals.

For the sake of this edition of our ongoing spotlight series, we’re going to take a further look at what Shantel brings to the table.

Watch our latest Survivor 41 preview video! If you look below, you can watch us talk all about the impending changes to the game this time around! Once you take a look at that, be sure to SUBSCRIBE to Matt & Jess on YouTube — we’ll have more Survivor videos coming throughout the fall and we don’t want you missing them.

What stands out about her – Shantel is 34 years old and originally from Toronto (she currently lives in Washington DC) — we’ve already gotten into her profession. In her bio she talks about having a difficult childhood and overcoming a lot in her life to get to where she is. We think having adversity in your background helps in a game like this; you know what it’s like to struggle or feel stress.

As a pastor, we would assume that one of her greatest skills is going to be empathy and understanding. While she may play her own game, we still think she will make other people feel like she is there primarily for them. The more she can emphasize that, the better off she will be.

What could hold her back? – Could she play too hard? Maybe. Another problem is that she could be judged because of her profession and people could rush to conclusions about how she’s going to play. She will probably have to work hard in order to ensure that she doesn’t get thrown into a particular box as a person in this game.

Our personal pre-season assessment

Shantel is going to be SO much fun to watch throughout the season — there are so many things that we love about her bio (she’s randomly a huge fan of Xena: Warrior Princess), and we also think that she’s going to hold nothing back when she’s out there. We’re a little worried that she’ll play too hard early on and get herself in trouble, but she is 100% the sort of person who would be great at final Tribal Council. As of right now, we hope that she can make it there.

Related – Check out some other Survivor 41 spotlights now

Are you rooting for Shantel Smith to do well on Survivor 41?

Share some of your thoughts in the comments! Once you do just that, stick around for some other updates. (Photo: CBS.)