‘Survivor: Blood vs. Water’ castaway spotlight: Colton Cumbie
There is no one more controversial on “Survivor: Blood vs. Water” than Colton Cumbie. We’ve said this before, we legitimately feel like had this season been cast after “Big Brother 15” had started filming and Aaryn-gate began, we don’t think he would be on this season. CBS wouldn’t want to take the risk. Colton is a big character, and you cannot deny he has baggage. There have already been some online boycotting of the show simply due to him coming back over some of his racially-charged remarks.
Now that we’ve addressed the backlash, we do want to differentiate somewhat between the game that Colton played the first time (which was actually pretty strong before he was evacuated), and some of the comments that he made (which were awful). This is going to be an interesting spotlight to do for a number of reasons, with one of them being whether or not he can really put a better foot forward this time around, if he is given an opportunity to do so.
Basic details – Colton Cumbie, 22 years old from Monroeville, Alabama; here with fiance Caleb Bankston
Occupation – Student teacher (kind of an oxymoronic phrase, but okay)
Claim to fame – Controlling the men on “Survivor: One World” before being on the short end of a tribal swap and getting medically evacuated from the game. Also, getting in a nasty fight with Bill Posley that led to allegations of racism and fury when Bill was voted out of the game after Colton helped convince his tribe to willingly go to tribal council.
Strengths – The fact that Colton managed to actually convince people to do a move that was so inherently stupid to some of them shows something about his game. You may hate him, but he’s a very good manipulator and can get what he wants better than most other men to play this game. He’s devious, very smart, a student of the game in the same way as many other superfans, and he probably would have made it close to the end had he not been evacuated (though there’s no way a jury would have voted for him to win). He may also be someone who is an easy ally this time; no one may want to work with him right away, and he could be an easy number if used properly.
Weaknesses – There are some big ones. First of all, he’s not a challenge beast, and was pretty well useless at camp the first time around. If you want to have harmony and people working hard, he’s not going to be your guy. Also, he’s got a huge mountain to climb following his nastiness the first time. People are not going to be happy with him being there, especially Monica Culpepper, who felt embarrassed for trying to support him when the two were on together after seeing the terrible things he was saying when the Bill fight was going down.
Prediction – Colton’s not going to make it far. Since he got taken out for medical reasons last time, there are some in America who still feel like they need a pound of flesh (not literally, people!) over some of the things that he said. Former contestants are going to be some of these people, and there are some on his tribe (Rupert, Monica, Laura, Tina) who hold themselves to be such purveyors of “good” that we don’t imagine they will even want to associate with him. We do think that Colton will be more self-aware this time based our past interview with him, but the damage to his reputation in this game has already been done. His only hope is to get with people who are also a little more devious, but we don’t think he’d be content with someone else trying to control him.
You can watch his CBS interview below, along with a poll to vote on his projected performance. Meanwhile, click here to see the other spotlights in our series.
Photo: CBS