BLYN – Each person had 60 seconds to tout mental and physical toughness and express bald desire – and none among the hundreds seemed to have a whit of trouble doing that.
Some didn’t even need the full minute in front of the camera on Friday, when auditions for the popular CBS reality television show “Survivor” were held at 7 Cedars Casino.
Sonja Coventon, 44, of Port Angeles said her job has made her fit for the show, which will start taping at a yet-to-be-disclosed place in late October.
“I work at the dump,” now known as the Port Angeles Transfer Station, Coventon began.
“I’ve got guts,” and the certainty that she can handle whatever the show throws at her.
“How many freezers full of rotting elk meat do you open a day?” Coventon asked.
As a scale attendant she’s opened as many as six such freezers in a shift, in addition to coping with 300 customers.
“Survivor,” which winnows the recipient of the final $1 million prize from about 16 contestants, airs locally on the Seattle CBS affiliate KIRO-TV.
The station sent its business development manager, Kristin Reese, to 7 Cedars on Friday to keep a list of standouts.
She asked them to stick around for “the CBS casting folks” who were on their way to the casino.
One who made the list was Thomas Shea, 76, who drove 600 miles from Alturas, Calif., to list his qualifications: single parent of a teenage boy; recently climbed Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines; 55 years of competitive league softball; careers as truck driver and dog catcher.
