Survivor star gets evicted, engaged

SILVER LINING: Survivor victim Mary Sartain met her future fiance after being evicted by her team mates.

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A surprise early eviction from the latest season of reality show Survivor has had a silver lining for fan Mary Sartain, in the form of her future husband.

Sartain - a 29-year-old saleswoman from California - became the second person to be evicted from Survivor: Fans vs Favourites when she was "blindsided" by her tribe of fellow fans.

But Sartain told Stuff.co.nz she wouldn’t have met her fiance - Survivor: Pearl Islands competitor Ryan Opray - if she wasn’t voted out at that point in the show.

"That came about when Johnny (Fairplay) and I had been voted off early. We got a chance to talk and because of that he introduced me to Ryan.

"Without me being voted off early it may not have happened. I definitely got my prize out of it."

Sartain, who hopes the couple's November wedding will be televised, said she could understand why so many Survivor relationships had formed over the show's 16 seasons.

"You’re on the most beautiful place on earth. You're on a white-sand beach in the jungle in this gorgeous situation. It's the perfect place for romance."

"There's an attraction there between two survivors because of how tough the game is. There's definitely an attraction between survivors. I definitely feel that with Ryan."

Sartain, who applied but was rejected for Survivor: Fiji, said her engagement had lessened the blow of being voted out so early in the game, which pits 10 "super fans" against 10 former Survivor contestants in the tropical setting of Micronesia.

"I was definitely blindsided. I didn't see that coming. I thought for sure my time on Survivor wasn't going to be up that soon."

Despite watching the show since season one, Sartain said nothing could prepare her for the Survivor experience.

"You can't gauge how hard it is going to be sitting on the couch at home until you're in the situation and you're starving and you're tired. The toughest thing for me was not getting any sleep."

She's disappointed she didn’t have time to try out some of the tricks she had planned.

"The tricks up my sleeve were going to come later in the game when it came down to lots of physical one-on-one challenges. There were definitely tricks I wanted to play but didn't get time for them. I was going to try flirting a little bit."

Sartain picked a member of the 'fan' tribe to win the show's $US1 million prize.

"I'm definitely biased towards the fans. I think they need to get their act together, but one of my favourites is Jason. I'm definitely rooting for him. He's got all of the great Surivivor skills and know-how." 

*Survivor: Fans vs Favourites screens on TV3 on Thursday nights at 8.30pm. Stuff.co.nz will exclusively interview every contestant after their eviction.

- © Fairfax NZ News