Erik Cardona grew up in Chino Hills, which made him the closest we had to an O.C. contestant on “Survivor” this fall. Well, that and a special moment he shared as a lad with one of Pedro’s colleagues here at the Register — more on that later.
So after Cardona suffered the equivalent of a 2-by-4 upside the head in Tribal Council on Thursday’s episode, we were interested in chatting with our O.C.-adjacent ex-Survivor on his experiences on the wild and wooly shores of Samoa.
A bartender and substitute teacher before the show, Cardona says he was a fan of the show who never dreamed he’d appear on it, until one day while walking in Santa Monica with friends, a casting agent saw something she liked.
“I met someone who literally grabbed me by the collar and said, ‘Would you ever (be on ‘Survivor’)?” he says. “I said, ‘Lady, you have no idea how perfect the person you just bumped into is.”
Shay Sorrells, a 30-year-old social worker from Newport Beach, has been a fan favorite on “The Biggest Loser,” but that doesn’t necessarily translate into survival when the competition gets tough.
