Yau-Man (Favorite)

[Erika]

YAU-MAN CHAN
Age: 55
Home Town: Martinez, CA
Occupation: Computer Engineer
Season: Survivor: Fiji
Placed: 4th

Originally from Malaysian Borneo, Yau-Man Chan attended All Saints Secondary School in Kota Kinabalu. He moved to the U.S. where he received a Bachelor of Science degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He went on to receive his Master of Science degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Yau-Man Chan is the Chief Technology Officer for the College of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. In this position, he manages and runs the information systems infrastructure for administrative, research and teaching units of the college. This includes setting up networks, computers and managing business database systems. He previously worked designing electronic circuits for scientific instruments to collect data. He's also been a housepainter, cook and dishwasher.

Chan enjoys playing table tennis, bicycling, woodworking and reading. He is a member of the USA Table Tennis Association. He describes himself as intellectual and contemplative. He considers himself a natural leader, a good organizer, very skilled with his hands, very resourceful and feels he possesses a keen intellect.

Chan currently resides in Martinez, California with his wife of 24 years, Jennifer. They have two children, Penelope and Ione. They also have a dog, Tucker, and two rabbits, Ruby and Cupid. His birth date is August 26, 1952.

YAU-MAN SAYS: ''Last time, I was able to play the weak old man under the radar before the merge. I definitely cannot do that [this time].''

JEFF PROBST SAYS: ''You can't do a favorites season without Yau-Man. He's sort of the Rudy of this season. He'll be the oldest guy and the most frail and probably be one of the most popular. Yau-Man's problem is going to be those things. He's so popular, everyone there knows that he's popular and well liked, and everybody knows what happened to him in Fiji. But I think Yau-Man's going to have to come out and play aggressive. I don't think he can play that same game of just chopping coconuts and being everyone's friend.''

Favorites:
Colors Blue
Scents Rose Flowers Rose, orchid
Board Games No favorite
Video/Computer Games No favorite
Sports to Play Table tennis
Sports Teams No favorite
Outdoor Activities Bicycling
TV Shows MythBusters, 60 MINUTES, Dateline
Movies No favorite
Actors Sean Connery
Actresses Meg Ryan
Music Classical, pop
Magazines The Economist
Books/Authors The Canon - Natalie Angier, Why People Believe Weird Things - Michael Shermer
Cereal No favorite Fruit Apple, Asian pear
Chips/Snacks Shrimp chips
Cookies Chocolate chip
Candy Bars M&Ms, Smarties
Alcoholic Drinks White wine, fume blanc
Non-Alcoholic Drinks Café latte, café mocha


Source: CBS and EW

[Erika]

I am hoping Yau can stick around for awhile! He's so likable and I bet if given the opportunity, he'll be able to find that idol - no problem! He will also use it !

[CFK]

He's so likable

That will work against him - if I was out there, I'd think I had more shot to win against Fairplay than Yau (though they're both in danger of going early since they're the weakest guys in a tribe with some dominant females).

[toque]

How is Yau weak? He's proven he can do better than a lot of guys at various kinds of challenges...

[CFK]

He's proven he can do better than a lot of guys at various kinds of challenges...

Not compared to Ozzy and James. That just leaves Jonathan who has some brute strength and some brains vs. Yau who has lots of brains but no brute strength. Jonathan also has the advantage of having been on a water-based season, while Yau was on a landlocked one. Most of Yau's skills are more suited to individual challenges (precision and smarts) instead of tribal ones.

[toque]

We'll see....

And I beg to differ on Jonathan, I don't think he does that well on challenges

[CFK]

And I beg to differ on Jonathan, I don't think he does that well on challenges

He's no great shakes, but he never massively lacking, which could be a problem for Yauman. The things he's better at he can do better than Jonathan, but there are other areas where he can't compete at all.

We can see two up-coming challenges in the intro: a wrestling one where they're all wearing warpaint and a tile-breaking swimming one. Both seem like they'd favour someone like Jonathan (even back in Fiji, Gary was the old dude helping his tribe win immunity, not Yauman).

[Erika]

Interview: Yau-Man Chan of 'Survivor: Micronesia' Friday, February 22, 2008

Just because I predicted this would happen doesn't mean I'm happy about it. On last night's episode of Survivor: Micronesia, Yau-Man Chan became the third person eliminated from the game. The Malakal tribe had divided into two tribes. One one side, there was Ozzy, Amanda, James, and Parvati. On the other, Jonathan, Ami, Eliza, and Yau-Man. Cirie sat in the middle, as a powerful swing vote. While some argue that the smart move would have been to break up the Malakal couples, Cirie thought it would be a better decision for her to take out Yau-Man. Today, he spoke to BuddyTV about his fellow tribemates and coming back to the game for a second chance at a million dollars.

Hey everybody, this is Gina from BuddyTV, and today I'm talking to Yau-Man from Survivor: Micronesia. Was it too hard to convince you to come back and play Survivor a second time?

No, not at all. The first time I was so close to the end that when they asked me I said, "Oh yes, I get another chance."


You must get asked a lot, but do you have any bad feelings about the way you went out the first time you played?

No, not really. I mean, I wish it had ended a little bit differently, but on the other hand I played it hard. There's a cruelty, I knew it going in and I was prepared for it.


When you came back for Survivor: Fans vs. Favorites, were you familiar with all the favorites who came back? Did you watch their seasons?

No. I did not know who would be coming back, so when I was asked to come back for this I didn't know who would be coming back. I was speculating, trying to guess from who were the most interesting characters, and I think I guessed a couple people correct. But when I saw them, for example they have three from Cook Islands -- Parvati, Ozzy, and Jonathan. Unfortunately when the Cook Islands season was on we were filming the Fiji series, so I didn't see Jonathan and Ozzy, how they played their season. I was missing most of their character, so going in there and meeting them I have to just guess that since they're from the same season they probably know each other and they've somehow made friends with each other. It's the same with the two women from Vanuatu and the two from China. The China season was still on the air when we went to film Micronesia.


So when you saw the Malakal tribe, was there anyone there you bonded with the most?

Yes, I bonded quickly with Jonathan, because I guess he's an older guy and he's married with kids like me. We have a lot in common. Also with Ami, she turned out to be very nice, certainly a very different persona than we see on TV in the Vanuatu season.


In the first episode, Jonny Fairplay said that you're not as nice as you look. When he fell into that boat, that couldn't have been intentional, was it?

No, I did not intentionally do anything to harm him. We were both diving for the idol and he hit his head against the boat. It's a better story for him to tell everybody that I pushed him into the boat.


What happened last night? I was shocked that you ended up going out. I really thought it was going to be one of the couples -- Ozzy and Amanda or James and Parvati. How did it end up being you, do you know?

Well, I think what happened was that there were two four-way alliance, and Cirie was in the middle. We thought that my alliance, me and Jonathan and Ami and Eliza thought that it must not be too difficult to convince her to join up with our alliance and break up the couple. We were targeting Parvati. For some reason she felt threatened by the presence of Jonathan in our alliance, then they had a big argument about Jonathan and how he played a dirty game in Cook Islands, and so on and on and on. By the end of that argument I go oh no, this is not a good thing. It looks like it's not good for me, because I'm aligned with Jonathan. I would think that the target should be the couple. In this type of game you don't want anybody coupling up so soon.


Isn't it a bad strategy for Cirie to be aligned with two couples because she would be the one who's dispensable?

That's what we thought. It was so obvious for Cirie to be aligned there, she's the fifth person, she'll be way on the outside right away. So we didn't think it'd be difficult to convince her that she should join up with us and split up the couples.


You have such a great reputation with Survivor fans. Did you know how big of a target you were going to be when you came back? If you made it to final two, you'd pretty much be a sure bet to win.

Yeah, I knew that going in there on this round I would be a big target, because I could not play the feeble old man type of game, I had to do it a little bit differently. I guess I couldn't do it that different. I still became a target and I could not get to know the people very well, their personalities, early enough. I kind of completely missed out on Cirie and how much of a power player she can be. Having missed out on that, I didn't realize that she has such a power of persuasion to get her way when she put her mind to it.


Do you have anything you want to say to your fans? You've got a lot of fans at BuddyTV.

Well, I would like to thank my fans, and I'm sorry that I disappointed them this season. I really thought I could go much further, but thank you for cheering me on when I was still on.


Thank you so much Yau-Man, I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Source: Buddytv.com

[Erika]

Yau-Man Chan talks about 'Survivor: Micronesia'

By Reality TV World staff, 02/25/2008
Previously defensively-minded Cirie Fields made the decision to suddenly go on the offensive during her second Survivor adventure, and Yau-Man Chan was her first target.

As a result, the 55-year-old computer engineer and former Survivor: Fiji contestant from Martinez, CA became the third castaway eliminated from Survivor: Micronesia -- Fans vs. Favorites during Thursday night's broadcast of the long-running CBS reality show's sixteenth season.

On Friday, Yau-Man talked to Reality TV World about why Cirie grew suspicious of him and organized the support for his ouster; how the romantic interests of a few of his fellow Favorites forced him into an alliance out of necessity; how he basically knew he was going to be booted prior to Tribal Council; and why he feels Jon "Jonny Fairplay" Dalton deciding to quit indirectly led to his own downfall.

Reality TV World: Okay, I have to ask the obvious first question. What was Cirie's issue with you? Was she really just that paranoid that you'd find the idol if you got to Exile Island or had something else happened between the two of you?

Yau-Man: Pretty much I was very surprised because I think she... I thought, first of all, we all know she was sort of the odd person out. There were two four-person alliances going there, and I thought her game plan was to, "vote anybody but me" type of strategy...

Reality TV World: Absolutely...

Yau-Man: So I thought given the fact that the other four are two very tightly coupled couples, that her chances with us [Jonathan Penner, Eliza Orlins and Amy Cusack] would be much better. With the other side being [Ozzy Lusth, Amanda Kimmel, Parvati Shallow and James Clement].

Reality TV World: I would think from a strength -- a physical standpoint as well.

Yau-Man: [Ya,] I thought it would be easy to bring her to our side. But I think she felt that because Jonathan and I allied ourselves first and then brought her in -- she found out at that we brought her in [after that], and she didn't think that... She [thought] that we brought her in and now she's on the outer fringes of the alliance.

Then -- actually, they didn't show it on the episode -- but I spent a lot of time talking to her one-to-one and said, "Cirie, we can play the same game. You and I can play the same game as we did with me and [Earl Cole played] during the Fiji season where the two of us were allied, but nobody knew about it until very late. If I go to Exile Island and find the idol, I'll share the use of it with you."

I did a lot to try and convince her, "Hey, I'm your friend. We can actually go far together." But I guess I never did.

Reality TV World: Do you know why she seemed so sure you'd be the next Favorite to get to Exile Island? Had you guys drawn straws...

Yau-Man: There wasn't drawing straws...

Reality TV World: Was there some type of schedule set up? She seemed pretty confident that the next time the Favorites got to choose who to send to Exile Island, you'd be the one to go.

Yau-Man: Right, I don't know why she was so sure. Amy gave us the clues -- the first few clues -- to whoever goes next, [so] we can just switch it back and forth and just go to the fourth clue and keep going from that point on.

Reality TV World: So is that why Amy was the only one to raise her hand after you guys won the third episode's Reward Challenge -- because the tribe had already agreed on who would get to go to Exile Island ahead of time?

Yau-Man: Well, yeah. Pretty much. We were going to -- as much as possible -- take turns. But I think that the thing was if we could not agree, we'd have to draw rocks.

Reality TV World: But there wasn't any agreement you'd be the next one to go, correct?

Yau-Man: There wasn't an agreement... I was trying to make an agreement with Cirie and say, "Look, if I ever make to Exile Island and find the idol, I'll share it with you. And your chances are good with us -- with our alliance -- because the other four are all coupled together. You're on the outside also."

Reality TV World: I know you were basically "recruited" for Survivor: Fiji so I'm not sure how much Survivor you'd watched before then, but what has frequently happened to Survivor "fence-sitters" is two alliances team up and vote the fence-sitter out. In fact, Eliza and Ami -- who were in opposite alliances at the time -- did exactly that to Dolly Neely way back in an early episode of Survivor: Vanuatu. Why didn't that happen here?

Yau-Man: We were not playing that. I wish that had come up. Our worry was -- and that's our downfall -- that our alliance was worrying too much about the tightly-coupled alliance, James and Parvati and Ozzy and Amanda. We were determined to split them up.

Reality TV World: So the two four-person alliances never discussed the possibility of both just voting for Cirie?

Yau-Man: No. We weren't talking very much to the other alliance... We were quite determined to first get Cirie into our alliance and the other thing was to target Parvati to be voted out. Either Parvati, or maybe even Amanda. It's important to split up those two couples early.

Reality TV World: So it was basically "Cirie or Bust" for you guys?

Yau-Man: Yeah.

Reality TV World: So you guys really hadn't given any thought to the idea that you could just vote Cirie out -- and for all you knew there might have been a tribal swap before your tribe ever even went back to Tribal Council again?

Yau-Man: Yeah. We never really -- we talked about that, but we never took it very seriously. Never to where we would approach the other guys say 'Hey look..." We never took it to that level.

Reality TV World: From what was shown on the show, it really Cirie seemed to have previously made a pretty clear choice to join your alliance with. Was that just the editing or had your foursome really spent the first week on the island thinking you had a pretty solid five-person alliance with her?

Yau-Man: We did. But I guess Cirie, the more she thought about it, the more she felt like she's on the outside given the fact that Jonathan and I and Amy spend a lot more time together than with her. She came in after Jonathan approached me to form an alliance, so from that point on... As soon as when we approached her, she already felt that she was an outcast right then.

Reality TV World: But even with yourself and Jonathan, that still would have out her third in a five-person alliance. What made her so convinced she was the fifth person?

Yau-Man: I don't know. I wish... When I get to talk to her again, I'd like to ask her that question (laughing). "Why do you think somehow that Amy and Eliza, why would she consider us being so tight?" At first, we could see she would have a much, much better chance with us than with those two couples. We couldn't see why she couldn't see that.

Reality TV World: So basically that first week, you guys thought everything was all set and suddenly on Day 9...

Yau-Man: She changed. She was very nice to me, we were doing things together and then I never thought that suddenly she'd have a change of mind -- a change of heart. It started out with a big fight with Jonathan, and she kept bringing up all the things that Jonathan did in [Survivor: Cook Islands] and how he would flip back and forth and so on, and so she kind of kept carrying that idea forward and said, "Hey, you're going to do that here also and I don't want to get caught in that."

Reality TV World: So it was really Jonathan more that she seemed to be focused on -- you and Jonathan specifically?

Yau-Man: Right.

Reality TV World: During Tribal Council, Cirie also made a big point of mentioning how she'd only be "the fifth member of a five person alliance" if she'd voted with your group. Did anyone in your group ever turn around and point out that she would also seem to be in the same spot with the other foursome?

Yau-Man: Yeah, in fact that was very early [before we even left for Tribal Council]. When we first figured out that she is not as tight with us as we thought she would be, that's the first thing that I pointed out to her. I said, "If you go with those four, look at them. They are very tight."

Reality TV World: What was her response to that?

Yau-Man: She then from that point on went around trying to convince Eliza to vote me and she went to Amy and so on. She kept working on the other people.

Reality TV World: So she started to pick-off pieces of your alliance then?

Yau-Man: My hats off to her. From a defensive position, she took up to become an offensive position. She then worked on our alliance to turn them against me.

Reality TV World: Do you have any explanation for how Cirie suddenly went from the passive, "I'll write anyone's name down as long as it's not my own" person we saw in Panama and during the first couple of Micronesia episodes to this incredibly forceful power player?

Yau-Man: No. That was a surprise. I could kind of see the change in heart from the point she had the big argument with Jonathan and what his game plan is and so on. It got more and more intense, and from that point on I think she was determined to break-up whatever Jonathan's alliance had.

Reality TV World: You mean the Episode 3 argument that viewers saw taking place in the cave?

Yau-Man: In the cave, and it actually went on for a long time. It went on for a long time, and my name was brought up. I was there most of the time, and from that point on I went, "Oh my God." That was pretty much the turning point.

Reality TV World: That was the argument that took place after you got back from losing the Immunity Challenge, right?

Yau-Man: Right.

Reality TV World: So I guess it's safe to say that by the time you left camp from Tribal Council, you were pretty much...

Yau-Man: I was pretty much [expecting to be eliminated]. I thought I still had some hope. In fact, before we went off for Tribal Council, I pulled [Cirie] aside one last time and we had lots of one-to-one conversation. I gave her the last chance, I said, "Look, I will be with you. I'll protect you. You know that my word is good." I did try to talk to her until the very end.

Reality TV World: What was your original strategy going into the game? I'm guessing the couples wasn't part of it.

Yau-Man: No. I was surprised the couples happened so early and they were so obvious so early. I didn't think that was a good thing to do. So our strategy was certainly break-up the couples. But...

Reality TV World: But before the couples happened, what was your plan? Jeff Probst has mentioned how some of the Favorites began talking about alliances and strategies before they even knew that they'd be coming back for sure. Had you had any of those types of talks? If so, with whom?

Yau-Man: It was difficult because I was the only one from Fiji. And also Cirie was the only one from Panama. So my assumption early was there were three from Cook Islands, two from China, two from Vanuatu. So they would pretty much already have played with each other and they know each other, so I assumed that there's some kind of an informal, unspoken alliance. Not only that... Cirie -- who has been on a season three years before -- she would have met with some of the other players like Amy, Eliza. I had only been off a season [one year ago]...

Reality TV World: Yeah, you hadn't have as much time to run into them...

Yau-Man: I was by myself out there, so my assumption was I had to work myself into some alliance. I knew if I could get to the merge, I'd be okay, so I knew I was in trouble.

Reality TV World: How tight was your alliance with Jonathan, Amy, and Eliza, really? Because last night we saw Jonathan and Amy both talking like they were willing to switch to the other side, and then Amy and Eliza both failed to vote for Parvati at Tribal Council.

Yau-Man: Ya, Amy came to me at the end and said, "Hey, in order for me to survive, I have to not vote Parvati. So I can have the flexibility of telling them 'I was with you guys. I didn't vote with them.'" So I guess she through the vote in for Cirie instead, and I was surprised that Eliza and Jonathan -- Jonathan I thought was quite tight with me all the way. Then Tribal Council, he pointed out why it was a silly thing to not keep me around.

Reality TV World: Who do you think you would have ended up allying with if the couples hadn't formed their alliance? Were Jonathan, Amy, and Eliza just an alliance of necessity or convenience?

Yau-Man: They were an alliance of necessity. Basically at that point I said I really had not made any friendships with any of these people going in, so I have to say whoever is willing to adopt me; I have to go along with them. Plus, they're all strong players, so there's nothing to lose by aligning. At some point, I probably should have gone up to Ozzy and so on just to make an alliance with them. They were all coupled up. It was really weird that they coupled up so early.

Reality TV World: During his post-show interviews, Jonny Fairplay tried to pin a lot of the blame for his "non-quit" on that hit you gave him when you guys were scrambling for the initial idol. Do you believe that?

Yau-Man: He wasn't hit that hard actually. We were both diving for the idol, and I just got there first. It really was an accident and I wasn't [meaning] to push his head into the boat like he's telling everybody. I think he was just [finally] sober. [After] many years, he was finally sober for a few weeks... and he finally realized it was a stupid idea to be on an island with a seven-month pregnant girlfriend.

Reality TV World: Who do you think would have been voted off that night if Jonny hadn't quit? Would it have been Eliza?

Yau-Man: It probably would have been Parvati.

Reality TV World: So you think you had Cirie at that point?

Yau-Man: At that point, Cirie was with us on it. See, at that point, until Jonny Fairplay came around and said, "Hey, I've had enough of this. I'm really worried about my baby and so on," we had enough votes for Parvati and Cirie was with us.

Reality TV World: Do you think Jonny's quitting is what ultimately set up the scenario that led to your own elimination?

Yau-Man: Yes. Definitely. Also, what they showed a little bit, Jonny took individual people and walked down the beach talking with them. I think in that episode they show him talking to Amy, but he did that with everybody and he disclosed everything we told him in confidence. Basically, he's telling everybody what everybody else's strategies are.

Reality TV World: During your first Tribal Council, you also made no secret that you were skeptical that Jonny's quitting talk wasn't just a "scheme." Did you ever end up believing him?

Yau-Man: Yeah, in the end. Going into Tribal Council, I sort of mostly believed him. But on the other hand, there's always that doubt that he was going to pull a fast one somehow. But I couldn't figure out how he could pull anything at that time. The other people in my tribe thought that he would pull a fast one by making an alliance with me, and in the end, I would give him my [Individual Immunity Idol] that I grabbed off the boat. So as people had the doubt that, "Hey maybe at the very last moment Yau-Man will give him the idol so he gets to stay and whoever he votes for gets to get booted out." So that was the worry on everybody's mind I guess.

Reality TV World: Ozzy really seemed to go out of his way to try and deflect the vote away from you before your tribe went to Tribal Council. Did you have some type of side-alliance with him?

Yau-Man: No. He later on... I think either before or after the Immunity Challenge, he sort of made a gesture that he would like for me to be a part of his alliance. But I pretty much turned him down, my thought being, "If I'm in your alliance, you guys are four very tight people together. I'm on the outer fringes." Maybe I should have taken him up on that and made it to the merge with the five of us.

Reality TV World: During Thursday night's Reward Challenge, the momentum really seemed to have swung the Fans' way until Erik Reichenbach kind of seemed to begin smacking some of the women around. Was that some type of turning point for you guys?

Yau-Man: It was a brutal challenge. It went back and forth.

Reality TV World: It really seemed to fire James up quite a bit, when Erik hit Eliza in the face and flipped Amanda over his head...

Yau-Man: And not only that, what they didn't show is somebody tried to pull my head under the water at some point!

Reality TV World: Who was that?

Yau-Man: I don't know. Eliza was the one who kept screaming, "They're trying to drown Yau-Man!" I asked Eliza who it is trying to drown me and they stopped the game and changed the rule and said, "No sticking people's heads under the water." (laughing) That was a very brutal challenge. What they didn't show of course is that the water is [only] like a foot-and-a-half deep -- but underneath is not sand -- it's like broken coral rock. So it's sharp. Most of us were wearing shoes, people who don't wear shoes would have gotten their feet cut up. Any many of the times when we were holding the pillow, we were kneeling down, so our knees were all cut up.

Reality TV World: Geez, that doesn't sound like too much fun.

Yau-Man: Ya... and at first, it was supposed to be best two-out-of-three. But the first round took so long they changed it and said, "Oh no, we'll just do it once" and everybody agreed.

Reality TV World: Was life at the Favorites' camp really as easy as it looked during that first week? Your tribe looked pretty comfortable out there.

Yau-Man: I think with our experience, we were able to... Because we got on the beach and we were able to build a shelter quite soon. Then we found a cave -- the infamous cave -- and so we were able to move into the cave and keep dry. I mean the weather was horrible.

Reality TV World: How much weight did you lose this time around?

Yau-Man: This time around I only lost a couple of pounds.

Reality TV World: Did you prepare any differently the second time around?

Yau-Man: Not that much. I did manage -- because I had more advance notice -- I did try to start eating a little bit more. But I don't have a big appetite, so it's tough for me.

Reality TV World: Have you kept in touch with Andria "Dreamz" Herd since Survivor Fiji's reunion show?

Yau-Man: I tried to send him email and so on and I haven't heard from him so...

Reality TV World: So what's next for you, back to work at your university job?

Yau-Man: Yeah, same old thing. I cannot afford to retire early, so I'll be a good employee for another few years until I retire.

Source: Realitytvworld.com

[Erika]

“I Didn’t Think I Would Be a Threat So Early in the Game” – An Interview with Survivor: Micronesia’s Yau-Man

by David Bloomberg -- 02/25/2008

Yau-Man was a Favorite on Survivor: Micronesia, but apparently Cirie was not a big fan! Why did she turn against him? Considering that all we saw was Jonathan talking to Cirie for Yau-Man, did he ever chat with her one-on-one? And just how bad was the reward challenge really? Yau-Man discusses all this and more!

Yau-Man is a popular contestant – truly a favorite among the Favorites. But he is actually surprised at how popular he is. What’s not surprising, though, is that he reads my columns on RealityNewsOnline, so that’s good!
Jumping into the interview questions, Yau-Man thought that, compared to Fiji, “Mentally, I was a lot more prepared for it because I have gone through the experience. But physically, it was a lot tougher and the challenges were a lot more physical. Also, the weather was not cooperating – it was horrible. We’re talking a downpour two or three times a day.”

With the preparation he mentioned, did he think the Favorites went into the game with an advantage, or too much confidence? He points to overconfidence, saying, “We didn’t spend enough time in challenges strategizing. We said, ‘We know what we’re doing,’ and then we went on to lose it. That was not good.”

Indeed, he added, “The Favorites went in a little bit too cocky. We put up a nice shelter and made fire and found food, but in the challenge we were thumbing our nose at them.”

Speaking of the challenges, it turns out we didn’t even see the whole of how brutal Thursday night’s reward challenge was. In fact, it was supposed to be the best two out of three! “But the first round took 45 minutes. Forty minutes into it without a winner, the producers said can we do just one round. Everybody agreed.”

And the conditions themselves were even worse than we knew. “Under the water was not sand but broken coral. So a couple people who didn’t wear shoes were in trouble. When we were holding down the pillows, our knees were cut up. I’m glad they changed the rules and said, ‘This round is it.’ We were not going to last best two out of three!”

And how did he do, personally? “At one point, someone tried to keep my head under water – I don’t know who it was. Eliza started screaming, ‘They’re trying to drown Yau-Man!’ They stopped the game and said no holding people’s heads under water.”

Moving on to strategy, Yau-Man had plenty to say about the situation he was in. In some ways, he blames himself. As he said he realized, “I’m not a people person, I don’t read people very well. I should have got to know her better and faster, but I didn’t realize what a strong personality she has. She went from a defensive position to an offensive position in getting everyone to go along with her.”

When he was questioned about how he could say he doesn’t read people well, given how he did on Fiji, he stood his ground, saying he doesn’t do it “as well as I should.” He added, “In Fiji I was able to play under the radar, the weak old man. But here I was a big target coming in, and I had a target on my back right away and was unable to form solid enough alliances to keep myself in the game.”

Speaking of that target, I asked Yau-Man about the reason for Cirie wanting to get rid of him. In particular, she seemed to want him out on the basis that the longer he was in the game, the more dangerous he would become. Yau-Man agreed, “but I was surprised she would think that so early in the game. We were not even close to merging yet and I didn’t think I would be a threat so early in the game. I thought I would be able to convince her that because I can play the game so well, that she would be better off aligning with me and my allies.”

So why did he think Cirie flipped? “I don’t know – I’m trying to figure out why. She felt my alliance with Jonathan was too strong. For some reason she got into a big fight with Jonathan and they were recounting each other’s evil deeds during their seasons. When they were showing Cook Islands, I was filiming Fiji, so I didn’t know all the things Jonathan did. So when he approached me, I was happy to do so. He’s an older guy and has a family and we have a lot in common. There were four of us and we were hoping to bring Cirie. I thought it was obvious she would do better with us. But for some reason, not only did she not want to align with us, basically because of Jonathan. Also, she was afraid if I got an immunity idol, I would go all the way.”

Following up on the Jonathan/Cirie issue, I asked Yau-Man why it seemed Jonathan did all the arguing for Yau-Man, including at Tribal Council. Yau-Man said, “I did most of my arguing one-to-one before we went to Tribal Council. I spent a lot of time one-to-one trying to convince her that she had a better chance going with me than the other guys. I even promised her that if I made it to Exile Island that I would share [the immunity idol] with her. I went as far as letting her know there was a hidden alliance with Earl and I [on Fiji, that nobody else knew about at the time] and we could play it that way. I did everything I thought I could to try to convince her the way we were going to vote.”

Ah, but did he really do everything? I had to ask: Did he consider offering to trade Cirie a car for her vote? “I didn’t have a car to offer. If I had a car I would have to probably done that too!”

One thing I kept thinking as I watched the third episode was that I wouldn’t have been surprised to see both factions join together and vote out Cirie, as was done previously to players like Christy and Dolly, who were in similar positions. Yau-Man talked about that, saying, “We sort of mentioned it but never pursued it. Looking back, we should have. The reason is that we didn’t really talk to the other alliance about this. I guess if we had talked to them, we could have said, ‘Vote for the person who is flip-flopping and stirring up trouble.’”

But Yau-Man thinks Cirie is definitely thinking. “She is quite smart. She outplayed me. She came in a defensive position. We thought it would be easy to convince her to come to our alliance. She went to a completely offensive position by not only leaving our alliance but convincing the others that I was a danger.”

Besides Cirie, I asked Yau-Man what kind of initial reaction he received from his other tribemates, who had seen him in action before. Yau-Man said, “None of them were surprised to see me back as a Favorite. In a way it wasn’t fair because everyone expected me back but I had no idea who would be back. I was renting past seasons when I found out I’d go back. I did some guesses and the only ones I guessed right were Ami and Ozzy. I though Yul would be back and Michelle from my season. But they didn’t show up, so the others were a total surprise.”
Speaking of the other players, what was the deal with Eliza’s vote against Yau-Man and Ami’s against Cirie? “I was surprised with Eliza’s vote. I thought we’d decided to vote Parvati off because she was so tight with James. We knew we lost Cirie’s vote. I thought at least I still would have Eliza’s vote. I was very surprised. Ami actually came to me before Tribal Council and said basically, we don’t have enough votes for me to stay on, so I have to show I’m not against them so I have a chance to stay on – she wasn’t voting for Parvati or for me either. The Eliza vote for me was a total surprise.”

Concerning Ami, Yau-Man added, “Ami is nice and personable, a nice person to hang around with. Smart woman, she has it together. She’s not one of the dingalings. She’s older and very interesting conversationalist.” He added, “Ami was pretty much in our alliance, but she had less objection to the two couples. But she was in agreement that they were a danger. But she didn’t feel it was as urgent to split up the couples. So she was concerned during that vote so she could tell the other side, ‘I was with you and didn’t vote against you.’”

And what are his thoughts on the couples? “I thought it was so obvious that you don’t couple up, and if you do, I thought it was obvious you want to split up the couples. I thought our vote for Parvati was so obviously a good move, that I don’t know why Cirie decided to turn on that. In fact, before Jonny Fairplay quit, we were targeting Parvati.”

Of course, Jonny Fairplay also came up, especially the dive for the immunity idol in the first episode, and Jonny claiming Yau-Man rammed his head into the canoe. “Yes, that’s his story, but we were both diving and he dove too hard and hit his head. I don’t think I pushed him. If I did, it was accidental. But if it wakes him up, it’s a good thing.” How is Yau-Man’s relationship with Jonny now? “We spent a lot of time together at the loser’s lodge, and he turned out to be a pretty nice guy.” (Incidentally, that answers a question many people had as to whether Jonny was able to go home after quitting to be with his pregnant fiancé. It appears he did not.)

So would Yau-Man do Survivor again if offered? “I don’t know, I’d have to find out who else is on – I’d want some friends with me. I was the only one from Fiji. The other people were off the show for a long time, other than China, and they have met up and made friends with each other at get-togethers and charity appearances. I was totally by myself out there.”
But even when he was by himself, Yau-Man the Favorite had plenty of fans – and still does.

Source: RealityNewsOnline.com

[Erika]

Survivor: Micronesia Interview - Yau-Man
Once again, Yau's considered too good of a guy to keep around.

February 26, 2008 - When it was announced that CBS would be bringing back some of the game's favorites to play against a team of fans, the first name that sprang to many minds was Yau-Man Chan, the wily computer expert from Martinez, California. Whether he was using his physics know-how to open supplies and hurl spears, fashioning and planting a fake Immunity Idol or bartering a brand-new truck for an empty promise, Yau-Man captivated Survivor fans with his intelligence and his integrity. Perhaps his smartest move in Fiji was listening between-the-lines to his tribe's answers during a pivotal Tribal Council. His last minute decision to play his Immunity Idol that night saved him from eviction. Later, he showed his maturity and graciousness when, as a jury member, he forgave Dreamz for breaking his word (and essentially stealing his truck).

Yau-man's major handicap in Fiji turned out to be his undoing in Micronesia: he's likeable and the worthiest of opponents -- and that makes it dangerous to keep him around for the Final Vote. Still, it was stunning to watch Yau's second chance at the million-dollar prize end in only the season's third episode. All signs pointed to either Parvati or Eliza being sent home depending on which alliance swing-vote Cirie chose to join. Seemingly nobody else wanted him gone this early, but when Cirie steadfastly refused to vote for anybody else, Ozzy and James eventually bent to her will. While I still haven't completely embraced the "Survivor Fantasy Camp" concept, I've had to admit that this has been the least-predictable start to a season we've ever seen. Unfortunately, this week that meant a truncated return for one of our favorite "favorites."

I recently spoke to Yau-Man about his approach to returning to Survivor as a major target and how it all went wrong.

IGN TV: What was your reaction to being asked back to the show?

Yau-Man: Well, I was very surprised, it's so soon -- because it was just a year after my Fiji season but, on the other hand, you know, I thought that if they ever have an All-Star, I thought that I would probably be asked back, but I didn't expect it to be so soon. And definitely I would say yes, I said if they ask me back I'm certainly going to give you another try since I was so close the first time but I was disappointed, definitely, that I didn't go any further.

IGN TV: Last time you had to prove yourself to stick around. How was it different coming back as a favorite?

Yau-Man: Well, coming back as a favorite, I know going in there I have a big target on my back. I thought that, you know, I can no longer play my "feeble old man, under the radar, to get to the merge." I know everybody will be gunning for me so, you know, I thought that I have to step it up in terms of the social game and I guess I missed on that in that I didn't get to know Cirie well enough to figure out what a power player she can be.

IGN TV: Were the conditions easier than in Fiji? I know your tribe really suffered when you were there.

Yau-Man: Yeah, well, in a way it was easier in that there were a lot more fish to catch -- there were no sea snakes, so we can do swimming a lot, we can do fishing a lot, which we could not do in Fiji because of the sea snakes. However, the weather was horrible this time. I mean, you've seen every episode the rain just comes down in buckets so we got dumped on by downpours after downpours and so everything was wet, wet, wet. It was pretty horrible. And also, all the challenges were a lot more physical too.

IGN TV: How solid was your alliance with Jonathan, Ami and Eliza and how quickly did that form?

Yau-Man: That did not form that easily. Jonathan was the first one to approach me and I was glad he did because I didn't know where I'll fit in and Jonathan, being an older person and a married man with kids and so on, I thought, you know, we have enough in common, and so we formed an alliance and then Ami and Eliza came up to us at some point while we're building the shelter to see if we can form an alliance. And I guess what we forgot was to include Cirie in this whole scheme and so when we needed the numbers and wanted her to be part of it, she felt that, you know, we wanted her just for the numbers and she thought that Jonathan and I are too close an alliance. And also, she remembered all the nasty things that Jonathan did during his season and she counted it out for him, laid it out on the line and had a big fight over it, and then I knew I was in trouble [Laughs]!

IGN TV: What was your reaction to Jonny Fairplay quitting so quickly?

Yau-Man: Well, it took a while for us to believe him, right? I mean when he first brought that up we were totally surprised and said, "Aw, no, he's up to something." And so after talking to him for a day or so we started to believe him and say, "Maybe he's for real." And certainly, I mean, like Jonathan and I said if our wives were seven months pregnant, we would not be here, right? And why are you here? And so I guess maybe he's sober for a change [Laughs] and got to think about his circumstances and so on. But the funny thing is that at that time I had the Immunity Idol from out-racing him to the boat, right? And so other people must've thought that it's some scheme of his that involves me, right? Somehow, everybody vote for him and then at the end I will give him the Idol so whoever he votes for gets voted out. So people were suspecting that somehow, I'm in it with him or something like that!

IGN TV: It was strange to have an Exile Island without seeing you on it. Was it the plan to have you go next?

Yau-Man: No, everybody wanted to go, you know, from the Favorite tribe. Every time we win and get to choose one of our own everybody wants to go so we've been drawing, you know, rocks -- colored rocks, to see who gets to go. So it's by luck and I was hoping I'd get to go but I'd never got around to it.

IGN TV: Cirie seemed terrified that you'd get the Idol.

Yau-Man: Yeah, and I was surprised that she made such a big deal out of that. What they didn't show is right after her big argument with Jonathan, and I begin to feel like, oh my goodness, I should have read up on her on her a little bit more, I should have approached her earlier, all the things I should have done more with her, but it's not too late, I can talk to her. So I talked to her quite a few times on a one-to-one, where I tried to convince her that, look, I am a perfect ally for you. We can play the same game I did with Earl in my season, in Fiji, where he and I were hidden allies, you know, nobody knew that we were together. And not only that, if I go to Exile Island and find the hidden Immunity Idol I'll share it with you, like I shared the use of it with Earl. But I guess I wasn't able to convince her.

IGN TV: Did you know you were likely to be voted out that night?

Yau-Man: By the time we were about to go to Tribal Council, I pretty much knew that, you know, I had not made headways in convincing Cirie to join us. But I didn't realize how far she got to convincing other people to target me. Because all along our target was Parvati, because of her, you know, getting romantic with James, and then with Ozzy getting romantic with Amanda and we thought that the obvious target is to split up the couples. But then when we were unable to get [Cirie] into our alliance and she start turning, I did not know how far she went but I had a sneaking suspicion that, yes, she probably were able to convince enough people to go her way.

IGN TV: Eliza wound up voting for you and Ami voted for Cirie. Do you think Jonathan can recover from the alliance imploding?

Yau-Man: I don't know. I was very surprised to see Eliza voting for me, I thought I had Eliza on our side and Ami actually told me that she thinks that it's a lost cause and that she wants to make sure that she can stay longer by not voting with us, but she don't want to vote for me either and so that's why she voted for Cirie. So, you know, she wants to be able to let the other side know that, "No, look, I didn't vote for Parvati," and so I understood why she did that. I was definitely very surprised that Eliza voted for me.

IGN TV: What's the reaction that you get from fans when they see you?

Yau-Man: Well, I guess they still like me [Laughs] and so I get stopped in the street and I have people saying hello to me, people I didn't know. It's still a very strange feeling. I'm getting a little more used to that now, after a year or so.

IGN TV: You do some public speaking as a result of being on Survivor, what do you talk about?

Yau-Man: I've been asked to do some public speaking, especially to libraries and community events. They just want to know my experience and they want to get the behind-the-scenes look at Survivor and reality shows, you know, how it's actually done and so on. Most people are surprised when I tell them, yes, it's real, they don't feed us if we don't win any rewards, you know, they don't even give us a bottle of water after a challenge that takes two and a half hours to do in hundred and four degree weather! So, people are interested in those, you know, behind-the-scenes things.

IGN TV: Given the way it all turned out, are you glad you came back?

Yau-Man: Oh yes, I definitely am. When asked to do it again, I had no hesitation, I wanted to do it, you know, to get another chance. But, I was really hoping that I would go further.

Source: IGN.com

[Erika]

Yau-Man Chan Cast in The Skeptologists (New Pilot)

New Television Pilot: It's a Wrap!

We all would love to believe that aliens have visited us, that there was a second gunman on the grassy knoll, that certain gifted people can move objects with their mind. But belief is not enough. Like any accepted science, these ideas must stand up to experimentation. Belief alone is not proof. That is where we come in.

We are The Skeptologists.

We're not willing to just accept stories of the paranormal or supernatural. We want proof. Each week, we'll take on a handful of wild claims -- from the Bermuda Triangle to Bigfoot sightings to haunted houses -- and apply accepted scientific practices and experiments to see if these ideas really hold up. Whether in the field or in the lab, we'll literally put these subjects to the test in the hopes that one day we may find something that can't be explained. Each episode will investigate one or more popular paranormal, supernatural, or other type of phenomena, in favor of evidence-based science.
Executive producers Ryan Johnson (American Dragster) and Brian Dunning (Skeptoid).

Principal photography has wrapped for the Pilot Episode of the TV series “The Skeptologists!”

Production was absolutely amazing and was a great experience for all involved. We had an incredible cast and crew and were able to get everything we needed, ahead of schedule and we are now beginning the process of Post Production.

As you navigate through the website, you’ll see some pictures from the production, and the meetings that we held during the production. We had a great group and everyone worked very hard. I thank each and every one of you that put in hard work, money and time for this project.

As we start editing and finishing the show, we’re working on ways that the community at large can show their support for this program and support good, responsible and intelligent TV programming. Click on the “Support The Skeptologists” link and send us an email telling us why you want to see a show like this on TV. We will present these submissions to the networks during our pitch to show them the type of support that we really have for a program of this nature.

Source: http://www.skeptologists.com/index.php


See the following:
http://www.theskepticsguide.org/skep...fo.asp?pid=142