Survivor’s Janet Carbin 'Uncomfortable' With Support After Dan Spilo Scandal

Summary

• Most fans agree Survivor: Island of the Idols is the worst season due to player behavior, not medical evacuations.
• Janet Carbin feels uncomfortable with fan support, as she believes she did nothing special to deserve it.
• Despite praise for standing up to a fellow player, Janet remains humble and hopes to use support to help others.

Most Survivor fans agree that Island of the Idols is the worst season ever, even though none of the players were medically evacuated. Part of the reason for that is the fact that several players during that season came off like horrible people. While Jeff Probst has gone on to speak about the lessons he learned, he didn't look very good following the season either.

While Survivor: Island of the Idols will never be one of the seasons new fans should watch first, viewers still loved some of the players, including Janet Carbin. With that in mind, it is amazing to learn that the support Janet got left her feeling "nervous" and "uncomfortable".

Janet Carbin Had A Touching Reason To Be Bothered By Survivor Fans Supporting Her

There is a very simple reason why Survivor: Island of the Idols is typically considered the worst season ever. The reason for that is the fact that Dan Spilo's inappropriate touching scandal tainted the season in a major way.

Fortunately for Survivor fans, there were some aspects of the season that were good. For example, Survivor: Island of the Idols had some cast members that fans liked, including Kellee Kim, Jamal Shipman, Elaine Stott, Janet Carbin, and Lauren Beck.

Of all those players, many fans liked Janet the most because of how she behaved throughout the season. Sadly, however, it turns out that Janet didn't feel good about fans loving her for a reason that arguably makes her even more likable.

When Janet was making the rounds after her elimination episode aired, she was interviewed by Entertainment Weekly. During that December 2019 interview, Janet was asked to comment on how much most people on social media adored her.

How successful was Janet Carbin during Survivor?

In this day and age, it seems like virtually everyone wants to win the kind of praise that Janet was getting at that time. As a result, fans may have assumed that Janet would have been overjoyed to be getting so much praise.

However, while talking to EW, Janet explained that getting support from Survivor fans felt wrong to her. As Janet explained, she felt that she didn't do anything special that was worthy of so much praise.

"Initially, it was very uncomfortable for me, because I felt like I was getting a lot of praise for just being… normal. You know what I mean? Why am I getting praise? I’m just doing what a normal person would do."

From there, Janet revealed that she began to feel worried about all the praise she was getting. Based on what Janet told EW, it seems that she felt even worse as she saw some of her co-stars receiving hate from the same fans who loved her.

"It made me nervous. And then when my tribemates were being hated… you know, hate is a strong word. I felt my heart broke for them. You can dislike somebody or dislike what they do or not appreciate it, but if they’re taking responsibility for it, apologizing and moving forward, nobody deserves hate now."

For anyone who doesn't know, Kellee Kim called out Dan Spilo for touching her inappropriately during Survivor: Island of the Idols. Missy Byrd and Elizabeth Beisel then manipulated Janet by pretending they had also been inappropriately touched by Dan.

In November 2019, Entertainment Weekly covered how Missy Byrd and Elizabeth Beisel reacted to their actions during Survivor: Island of the Idols. After the episodes that featured them trying to take advantage of Dan Spilo's scandal aired, Elizabeth and Missy publicly apologized.

After being told Dan made three women she cared about feel uncomfortable, Janet voted against him. At the time, taking the moral stand against Dan was awful for Janet's game and her vote blew up in her face, strategically speaking.

However, Janet didn't waver, and Survivor fans lavished her with praise online for that.

Fortunately, Janet told EW during the aforementioned interview that she decided to embrace the praise she was getting from Survivor fans. Given how selfless Janet was, the fact that Janet told the outlet that she wanted to use that praise to help other women makes perfect sense.

"So it was hard for me to get all of the positiveness, with knowing that was what was going on. And then it started to change and then I was like, “Okay, let me embrace this. And what can I do with it?” And I’m hoping that I can do some work with some charities, or women’s groups, or whatever, to turn this into something positive. And I am overwhelmed and appreciative of the support."

Survivor's Kellee Kim Revealed That Janet Carbin Was Even More Heroic Than Fans Realized

When most people play Survivor, they do everything they can to not offend any of their tribemates. With that in mind, it makes sense that Janet has gotten so much praise for prioritizing sticking up for her tribemates to her own detriment.

The thing that most fans don't know, however, is that Janet repeatedly stuck up for Kellee throughout Survivor: Island of the Idols. The reason for that is the fact that Survivor's editors didn't show the first time Janet tried to help Kellee.

In November 2019, Kellee was interviewed by Entertainment Weekly too. During that interview, Kellee revealed that Janet spoke to Dan about his inappropriate touching mere days into the season, but Survivor's editors cut out that moment.

"As shown in the first episode, I told Dan that I didn't like being touched and asked him to respect my personal boundaries. Not shown is that Janet also had a conversation with him in the first 6 days, saying it's not the same for me to touch younger women as it is for you."

After Survivor: Island of the Idols aired, the show got a backlash for how the Dan Spilo scandal was handled. With that in mind, it is mind-blowing to know that more drama around Dan was edited out of the season.

Kellee's revelation also shows that Janet truly was worthy of the praise she received following the season. Hopefully, Kellee and Janet will get to play again someday, assuming they want to.

For more Survivor coverage, visit our Reality TV Hub.

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