Phillip Sheppard Suffered Immeasurable Trauma After Starring On Survivor

Summary

• Phillip Sheppard's Survivor experience left lasting trauma, negatively impacting his mental health and personal life.
• Survivor portrayal caused Sheppard to lose his job and face public humiliation, affecting his family and son.
• Sheppard used his pain to help create the Black Survivor Alliance, leading to more diverse casting on the show.

Even though Survivor constantly gains new fans who need to know which seasons to watch first, the show has many extremely devoted fans. As those loyal fans will know, Survivor has starred some fascinating personalities, like the controversial winner Brian Heidik and the villainous Jeff Varner.

What some of those loyal fans don't realize, however, is how damaging the show can be for castmates and that doesn't include the show's stars who've been injured. Unfortunately for Phillip Sheppard, he is an example of a Survivor player whose life suffered after leaving the game.

This article will reveal what Phillip Sheppard said about how devastated he was by how his life was affected by Survivor. Then, the article will look at how Sheppard used his Survivor trauma to help future players.

Phillip Sheppard's Life Was Severely Damaged Because Of Survivor

In January 2021, Entertainment Weekly interviewed Phillip Sheppard about his Survivor experience. By that time, it had been nearly a decade since Sheppard filmed his second season of Survivor. With that in mind, it was surprising to read how traumatized Sheppard still seemed to be during the interview.

When the interview began, the second thing that Sheppard was asked about was what he regretted about his Survivor experience. Instead of discussing moves he made that ruined his game, Sheppard reflected on how the show affected him. More specifically, Sheppard's words vividly revealed how much he regretted ever appearing on Survivor.

"If I had known in 2010 that my life would be impacted, how I would be depicted, how it would impact my mental health, my professional and personal opportunities, my relationships, and my own self-worth, I would have run as far away as possible."

Considering that Sheppard seemed to really enjoy many elements of playing Survivor at the time, his comments may come as a surprise to some. After all, he seemed to take joy in the teamwork elements of Survivor, as evidenced by the nicknames he provided his allies.

How successful was Phillip Sheppard during his two Survivor seasons?

However, it makes more sense if you reflect on Sheppard's Survivor experience. For example, because of how Sheppard was portrayed on the show, fans assumed he was lying about being a federal agent. Unfortunately, the negative way Sheppard was portrayed did a lot of damage to his life.

"As time wore on, this pervasive negative portrayal caused a lot of personal and professional trauma. As much as I tried to shift this public perspective, I acted happy, but deep down I was sinking in despair and depression."

He went on to say, "I wrote to CBS and the show's psychologist about what was happening with me. I wrote to the CBS lawyers asking they remove the promos and it would happen over and over again. I was singled out for this malicious, and humiliating depiction."

As Sheppard went on to explain, he was also barred from talking to the press when his first season was airing. That meant that he felt helpless to change how viewers and the world perceived him at that time.

While Sheppard obviously felt extremely upset by that situation, the situation also had other highly negative effects. According to what Sheppard told EW, his career took a huge hit specifically because of how Survivor portrayed him.

"Shortly after episode 1 of season 22 aired, I was abruptly terminated from my job due to how I was depicted on Survivor."

Later during the same interview, Sheppard described how his trauma continued after his Survivor tenure ended. According to Sheppard, he would continue to be humiliated in public.

"It was further humiliating to have men in a social setting see me speaking with a woman and pull out their phone and show me in pink underwear (which I was asked to wear because they like to show all of us in different colors)."

Sheppard also explained that his Survivor portrayal deeply affected his family members. For example, Sheppard explained to EW that his siblings found his Survivor portrayal difficult to watch.

"I regret that my older brothers and sisters, though they loved me, were heartbroken to see me being shown in such a derogatory way, knowing me to be someone with tremendous resiliency, overcoming many adversities in life."

Despite everything he personally went through, that wasn't the worst part of Sheppard's Survivor experience. Instead, Sheppard explained to EW that the hardest part was watching how his son was affected:

"My biggest regret was that my young son who had previously looked up to me would see his father depicted in some horrible way, and would have his friends tease him about it. This was devastating to me."

Phillip Sheppard Used His Pain To Help Make Survivor A Better And More Inclusive Show

While speaking to Entertainment Weekly in 2021, Phillip Sheppard blamed racism for his Survivor portrayal. On top of that, Sheppard expressed that he wasn't the only black Survivor player who felt that way.

Fortunately for all involved, the black Survivors who believed they'd been mistreated decided to take action. A former player named Sean Rector created the Black Survivor Alliance as an effort for them to come together and express their joint concerns to Jeff Probst and CBS.

During Sheppard's 2021 EW interview, he spoke about how he was a member of the Black Survivor Alliance. Thankfully, Sheppard also stated that being a part of the group was helping him to heal from his Survivor trauma.

"Fellow past contestant Sean Rector organized Black contestants and members of the Black Survivor Alliance (BSA) to speak about their edits and the online media and commercials that stereotype us. I participated and have begun the healing process."

In July 2020, NPR published an article looking at how several black Survivors felt their portrayal had been negatively affected by harmful stereotypes. That article revealed that CBS had pledged to meet with the members of the Black Survivor Alliance.

After that, it was announced that there was a new mandate that stated that half of each Survivor season's cast would be half people of color. In 2022, Probst happily told Entertainment Weekly that the casting mandate, "forever changed Survivor" for the better.

In June 2020, a group of black Survivor players appeared on "Rob Has a Podcast" to discuss how their experiences on the show had been affected by negative stereotypes. Phillip Sheppard was one of those players. Sheppard was also joined by Ramona Gray Amaro, Clarence Black, Ted Rogers Jr., Rory Freeman, Jolanda Jones, Sherea Lloyd, Sabrina Thompson Mitchell, Julia Carter, Vecepia Towery, and Earl Cole