Although President Bush pre-empted Survivor: Palau's normal 8 p.m. time slot last night, once the episode aired it was another president, of sorts, that shined. Ian Rosenberger, Penn State's former president of the Undergraduate Student Government, survived yet another round, making him one of only six remaining million-dollar contestants on the popular television show.
In the first challenge of the day, a real-life version of the Saturday Night Live game show parody "Who Wants to Eat?", host Jeff Probst doled out huge wads of cash to the survivors and then enticed them to bid blindly. Then, channeling his inner game show host, Probst offered the winning bidder the chance to trade it all in for the item within a given mystery box.
Ian pledged $280, plus an additional $20 he borrowed from his buddy Gregg, for what ended up being a plate of spaghetti with meat sauce and garlic bread. Considering his diet had consisted mostly of coconuts and clams recently, Ian was thrilled. He was also thrilled about winning an ice-cold beer, despite the fact that its $40 price tag was considerably more than the $5 pitchers of his Happy Valley days.
Upon collecting his prizes, though, Probst somewhat dampened Ian's enthusiasm by telling him he stunk, prompting Ian to bathe in the ocean the next day with the slightly homoerotic assistance of Gregg.
"It was like a Grecian bath," Ian explained. Responding to barbs some of the girls were making, he added, "I'm comfortable with my sexuality. It was no big deal."
Fresh and clean, Ian excelled at the episode's immunity challenge, a carnivalish game that involved lobbing coconuts through specified glass tiles. He connected on three out of four attempts and, with the help of two other survivors who broke his tiles by accident, won immunity for the episode.
How he was going to use that immunity became a subject of much-whispered discussion within the tribe. Steph, the lone remaining member of the rival Ulong tribe, tried to stage a coup against Tom, Ian's friend, before icing Ian and Gregg in ensuing weeks. Her attempts fell short, lucky for Ian who, along with everyone else, united to oust their foster child Steph from the tribe.
"You're one of the fiercest competitors I've ever met," Ian said respectfully of Steph, while voting her out. One could easily say the same about this resilient (and clean) Nittany Lion.
