UPDATE FRIDAY, SEPT. 18: Shannon Waters was never at risk of getting voted off the island of Samoa Thursday night. Her tribe won the coveted Immunity Idol by winning the immunity challenge. In fact, she got some votes to become the leader of the Galu tribe. Someone else got more votes.)
Shannon Waters is Marine Corps proud. Her family is proud of her.
But she has a big goal and she has 39 days to reach it, starting Thursday.
Waters, 45, is one of the lucky few. She was selected from 10s of thousands of applicants to appear on CBS’ “Survivor,” the most popular reality TV show EVER.
Season 19 premieres Thursday. Waters is ready. The prize, which she will have to wrest from 19 other Castaways as the show calls the combatants, is a cool $1 million.
How’s she going to do that? The answer is emblazoned across the show wherever you look: outwit, outlast, outplay. Of course, Waters can’t explain her strategy, which can range from flying under the radar to showing your hand way too early, especially if you’re a bit irritating and bossy.
Even the highest military top-secret clearance won’t get you that intel.
But her Shambo (remember Rambo?) personna should help her.
The CBS public relations person who arranged the interview with Waters made it clear that no questions were allowed about what happens after the stroke of 8 p.m. Thursday on Channel 7.
Say too much and your dreams of winning that $1 million are pretty much gone.
But Waters’ life as she has lived it and how she has been taught by her parents, Tom and Pat Waters, probably give some clues. She believes in family. She believes in helping others. And, she can cook. Maybe she has some good rice dishes.
She’s motivational and motivated. And she loves her dogs, Kali and Brucie.
“I bring people together,” Waters said. She watches out for the underdog and is there to lift spirits, she says.
Waters will watch along with the rest of the show’s fans as the drama and the lying and the friendships play out in the South Pacific. Of course, Waters already knows her fate, unless, of course, she’s in the top two or three and won’t know until the season finale who walks off with the prize.
The show was filmed earlier this summer.
Waters’ quest is on the island of Samoa, about 5,200 miles from her hometown, Renton. She’s tough; she’s the only female Marine Corps sergeant to compete in “Survivor.” She’s committed; she set a personal goal two years ago that she would appear on the show.
“I have never set a goal that I didn’t achieve,” she said.
To get ready for the physical challenges, she changed her eating habits and works out – a lot. She is, she says, in great shape.
Waters roots in Renton and in the Marine Corps go deep.
She was a standout athlete at Hazen High School, graduating in 1982. She played soccer, basketball and track (shotput and discus).
Perhaps most importantly, given the watery challenges she’ll face on Samoa, she can swim. Because of her swimming background, she was a lifeguard and water-safety instructor in the Marines. She has worked with kids at the Newport Swim and Tennis Club in Bellevue.
Most of her brothers and sisters live in Renton or nearby, including Sammamish and Kanasket. Her parents live in the Highlands. They just recently celebrated their 54th wedding anniversary.
For many decades, they operated Tom Waters Construction and Landscaping in Renton.
Her father served in the U.S. Marine Corps in Korea, making her a second-generation Marine.
“We were raised as the little Waters family platoon,” said Waters. There was a chain of command within the nine siblings, led, of course by the older brothers and sisters. And there was no fighting, she said.
“It was like the Waltons,” she said.
Her family, she says, is her “core operating system.”
“Knowing that no matter what is the outcome, I am loved beyond what most people probably experience,” she said.
Her father went with her when, at 17, she visited a Marine recruiter. She took a delayed enlistment, so she could graduate first from Hazen. In spring 1983, she started boot camp at Parris Island, S.C. She trained as a cook.
She served in Yuma, Ariz., and in Nevada, before overseas duty in the Far East. She served in Okinawa, Japan, and as a field Marine in Korea. She was discharged in 1987, but so missed the Marines that she served in the reserves for a year.
After that, she was a chef throughout the Seattle area, including Renton, and did some landscaping.
Waters has worked 11 years for Bargreen Ellingson Restaurant Equipment Supply, selling equipment to nursing homes, day-care centers, bars and full-service restaurants.
The company is putting on a private party for Waters to help kick off the season.
She’s a tough Marine, but Waters bawled, she said, when she was selected salesman of the year for her company in 2008, before about 500 fellow workers and vendors. Never before had she had such an experience.
She asked those in the crowd to give someone nearby a “heartfelt hug,” she said.
“It was positively outstanding,” she said. “If little old me can coordinate and ask people to do that, then anyone can.”
Those who know Waters best aren’t surprised Waters was picked for the “Survivor.” It all goes back to her family and her family’s motivational spirit.
“It’s a family that has strongly circled our beliefs around the family unit and sports,” she said.
While she was gone, her best friend watched her beloved dogs, Kali, a 9-year-old black lab, and Brucie, her 8 1/2-year-old golden retriever. They missed her, but were a bit distant when she got home. She brought home some new scents, she said.
“Their routine got broken up a little bit,” she said. “I had a lot of people pitching in to make sure they were taken care of.”
Even before the show airs, Waters is feeling the pressure of celebrity. She was chased through a local grocery store last week by about 18 people after someone recognized her from all the pre-show publicity.
And then there have been the drive-bys past her home.
“My God. I didn’t cure breast cancer,” she said. “It’s television.”
But, she admits, it’s also “Survivor.”
“I am just a person from Renton. This is crazy,” she said. She just smiles at people.
So she’s mum about where she likes to hang out. No use causing a stir.
Still, she’s excited. And while she knows a lot, she doesn’t know how the producers will portray what happened during those 39 days.
“It’s going to be a surprise to all of us,” she said.
‘Survivor’
The 19th season of the CBS hit reality show, “Survivor,” premieres at 8 p.m. Thursday on Channel 7.