Doc Gets <i>Survivor</i> Shock
Sean Kenniff, 30, a neurologist from Long Island, N.Y., is the latest castoff from Survivor island.
With just one episode to go, it's down to the final four -- the original members of the Tagi alliance. Rudy, Susan, Kelly, and Richard are the only ones remaining to fight it out for the $1 million prize. Last night, Kenniff joined the ranks of the ex-castaways who'll play judge and jury next week and pick the ultimate winner.
Kenniff was surprised to be voted off, he tells Early Show Co-Anchor Jane Clayson. He had been planning to sail into the finals with little problem.
"I was being 100 percent serious with those comments, and I thought I did stand a chance," he recalls. "I didn't know that the evil Tagi alliance was ready to whack me."
Although, at the time, he said he was the last good person to go down, Keniff says now that he didn't really mean it.
"I think I was a bit of a sore loser at that point," he explains. "But I really…do enjoy everybody's company inside the alliance."
Even Sue and Richard?
"Especially Sue and Richard," he replied. "They are like cartoon characters. They are hysterical."
As for the faction of TV viewers who think he's flaky, Kenniff says, "As long as they think I'm good-natured, I don't care. I was trying to go out there, have a good time, stand alone. It's the first vacation I have ever taken in my life. I didn't want to make enemies."
While he says he is enjoying all the attention he's getting, he is anxious to answer reports that he left medicine to find fame.
"See, that's the take on me, and it's not true… I left medicine October 8. I didn't know anything about Survivor. I read about it in Time on October 12," he says. "I left medicine because there are problems in the current practice of medicine, that's why."
If he had won the million-dollar prize, Kenniff says he would have used the money to pay off his medical school loans.
"Contrary to popular belief," he adds, "the 'Rich Doctor' is a thing of the past. My dad is a New York City fireman, and I was raised on a New York City fireman's salary. I owe $250,000 in medical school loans."
But between book deals and a possible role on a TV daytime drama, Kenniff might be surviving just fine after all.