‘Australian Survivor’ host Jonathan LaPaglia on Shay’s jury management: ‘Salt in the wound’
Warning: The article contains spoilers for the season finale of “Australian Survivor: Blood V Water”!
On April 4, the 10-person jury of “Australian Survivor” voted unanimously to award the $500,000 grand prize to Mark Wales. Co-runners-up Shay Lajoie and Chrissy Zaremba both received zero votes. Host Jonathan LaPaglia live-tweeted the finale, and he suspects Shay’s poor jury management is part of the reason why she failed to earn a single vote. “Damn….the JURY were clearly not happy with SHAY’s self appointed 8/10 for game play….but adding an extra half point was the salt in the wound,” he wrote.
Damn….the JURY were clearly not happy with SHAY’s self appointed 8/10 for game play….but adding an extra half point was the salt in the wound #SurvivorAU
— Jonathan LaPaglia (@JLa_Paglia) April 4, 2022
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Jonathan is referring to Shay’s response to a jury question from Michelle Chiang, who asked how Shay would rank her game play on a scale from 1 to 10. “I want to give it an 8,” Shay declared. “And I know that people are gonna say, oh, you didn’t orchestrate these massive blindsides, but I made it to this Final 3 spot. I fought from the bottom. It isn’t comfortable and easy to make moves from the position that I was in and you don’t really have the numbers.” She then added, “I’m actually gonna give myself an extra half a point — I’m gonna go up to 8.5. All of you guys obviously wanted to be sitting here right now, and I did something right.”
As Shay spoke, the camera caught the reactions of various jury members who were rolling their eyes (Jesse Hansen), scrunching their faces (Sam Gash) or tilting their heads (Jordie Hansen). The best reaction by far was from David Goodchild, whose facial expression simply read, “Ouch.”
To be fair to Shay, she indeed played from the bottom for most of this “Blood V Water” cycle. She was frequently targeted by the other players for elimination, and never had the numbers to make a big move. Shay was even voted out on Day 32, only to return to the game a short time later thanks to the Purgatory twist. By her own words, she only made it to the finale thanks to winning multiple immunity necklaces at the right time.
Not every “Australian Survivor” fan agrees with Jonathan’s assessment of Shay’s jury management. Debbie writes, “Shay had the best resume! Voted out, came back, won rewards, won immunities, was on the bottom of the pack, fought her way back. Didn’t LIE. Didn’t have hidden idol or her partner at merge. Didn’t need to blindside anyone.” Adan Veho notes, “Probably doesn’t matter. She’s an inspiration to women full stop.” And Trini Lee raved, “A strong woman backing herself. The eyerollers can go fall off the bleachers! Go Shay!”
Speaking about the ultimate winner, Jonathan tweeted, “Congratulations MARK you made the most of your second chance and waged a helluva battle to become………….. SOLE SURVIVOR BLOOD vs WATER!!!” This was Mark’s second time playing the Aussie reality TV show after initially being voted out early during the 2017 installment. That season was when Mark first met his future wife, and future mother of his child, Sam.
Congratulations MARK you made the most of your second chance and waged a helluva battle to become………….. SOLE SURVIVOR BLOOD vs WATER!!! #SurvivorAU
— Jonathan LaPaglia (@JLa_Paglia) April 4, 2022
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