"Survivor" winner joins CBS sitcom writing staff

[David]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/survivor-caramoan-winner-john-cochran-557897

'Survivor: Caramoan' Winner John Cochran Lands CBS Writing Gig
by Kimberly Nordyke

Survivor champion John Cochran has followed through on his pledge to
become a writer in a big way.

The winner of the CBS reality show's most recent season, Survivor:
Caramoan -- Fans vs. Favorites, tweeted Thursday that he has landed a
gig writing for one of the network's new comedy series.

"I'm thrilled to announce that I'm going to be a writer on the new CBS
sitcom 'The Millers' (with Will Arnett, Margo Martindale, and more)!"
he wrote. (The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed the news.)

The Greg Garcia-created comedy centers on a recently divorced man
(Arnett) whose life is complicated when his parents decide to move in
with him. Beau Bridges, JB Smoove, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Eve Moon and
Cole Ewing co-star in the multicamera show.

Cochran, who studied law at Harvard, first revealed his plans to forgo
becoming a lawyer and instead pursue writing during Survivor's live
reunion show, which aired May 12.

Afterward, he told THR that his dream "is an abstract aspiration at
this point. I've always been a good writer in school. � Maybe I'll
write some sort of screenplay, or comedy writing. Then I start
thinking, am I really that funny, or am I just deluding myself?"

The two-time competitor is not the first to parlay his Survivor fame
into Hollywood gigs. Among others, season one's Colleen Haskell
starred with Rob Schneider in 2001's The Animal and later served as an
assistant producer on E!'s The Michael Essany Show.

"Boston Rob" Mariano and wife Amber Brkich competed on The Amazing
Race twice, and he also co-hosted History's Around the World in 80
Ways. And Russell Hantz went on to star in A&E's house-flipping series
Flipped Off.

[Rick]

"David" <diml...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:rkjup8hd73l2gv9et...@4ax.com...

> http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/survivor-caramoan-winner-john-cochran-557897
>
> 'Survivor: Caramoan' Winner John Cochran Lands CBS Writing Gig
> by Kimberly Nordyke
>
> Survivor champion John Cochran has followed through on his pledge to
> become a writer in a big way.
>
> The winner of the CBS reality show's most recent season, Survivor:
> Caramoan -- Fans vs. Favorites, tweeted Thursday that he has landed a
> gig writing for one of the network's new comedy series.
>
> "I'm thrilled to announce that I'm going to be a writer on the new CBS
> sitcom 'The Millers' (with Will Arnett, Margo Martindale, and more)!"
> he wrote. (The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed the news.)
>
> The Greg Garcia-created comedy centers on a recently divorced man
> (Arnett) whose life is complicated when his parents decide to move in
> with him. Beau Bridges, JB Smoove, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Eve Moon and
> Cole Ewing co-star in the multicamera show.
>
> Cochran, who studied law at Harvard, first revealed his plans to forgo
> becoming a lawyer and instead pursue writing during Survivor's live
> reunion show, which aired May 12.
>
> Afterward, he told THR that his dream "is an abstract aspiration at

> this point. I've always been a good writer in school. . Maybe I'll

> write some sort of screenplay, or comedy writing. Then I start
> thinking, am I really that funny, or am I just deluding myself?"
>
> The two-time competitor is not the first to parlay his Survivor fame
> into Hollywood gigs. Among others, season one's Colleen Haskell
> starred with Rob Schneider in 2001's The Animal and later served as an
> assistant producer on E!'s The Michael Essany Show.
>
> "Boston Rob" Mariano and wife Amber Brkich competed on The Amazing
> Race twice, and he also co-hosted History's Around the World in 80
> Ways. And Russell Hantz went on to star in A&E's house-flipping series
> Flipped Off.

How is this even remotely possible? Cochran has no previous professional
experience as a writer, and TV producers don't normally hire inexperienced
writers. This really makes no sense at all unless it's a joke.

[Michael Black]

On Fri, 24 May 2013, David wrote:

> http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/survivor-caramoan-winner-john-cochran-557897
>
> 'Survivor: Caramoan' Winner John Cochran Lands CBS Writing Gig
> by Kimberly Nordyke
>
> Survivor champion John Cochran has followed through on his pledge to
> become a writer in a big way.
>
> The winner of the CBS reality show's most recent season, Survivor:
> Caramoan -- Fans vs. Favorites, tweeted Thursday that he has landed a
> gig writing for one of the network's new comedy series.
>

So whoever called him "Woody Allen-like" was even more right. After all
Woody got his start writing comedy for tv.

Michael

[UCLAN]

On 5/24/2013 4:29 AM, David wrote:

> The two-time competitor is not the first to parlay his Survivor fame
> into Hollywood gigs. Among others, season one's Colleen Haskell
> starred with Rob Schneider in 2001's The Animal and later served as an
> assistant producer on E!'s The Michael Essany Show.
>
> "Boston Rob" Mariano and wife Amber Brkich competed on The Amazing
> Race twice, and he also co-hosted History's Around the World in 80
> Ways. And Russell Hantz went on to star in A&E's house-flipping series
> Flipped Off.

Not to mention our "sainted" Elizabeth Hasselbeck, who is in her 11th year
as co-host on "The View", is a regular contributor on ABC's "Good Morning
America", and won a Daytime Emmy Award.

[Michael Black]

She's certainly come a long way, baby.

Remember her special item (it's been so long since they've been mentined,
I forget the proper Survivor technical term), those things in her hair? I
seem to recall she hoped to market them. I also seem to recall they
gradually disappeared as the season went by, as if she came to her senses.

Michael

[The Horny Goat]

On Fri, 24 May 2013 11:28:40 -0700, UCLAN <UC...@invalid.net> wrote:

>Not to mention our "sainted" Elizabeth Hasselbeck, who is in her 11th year
>as co-host on "The View", is a regular contributor on ABC's "Good Morning
>America", and won a Daytime Emmy Award.

The bottom line is that her Survivor experience might have gotten her
the job in the first place but she wouldn't have KEPT the job if she
hadn't earned it.

Just like the son of General Erwin Rommel whose son might have gotten
the job of Mayor of Stuttgart due to name recognition due to his
father's role as one of Germany's top war heroes but one simply
doesn't not get re-elected as Mayor of a large city twice on his
father's merits.

[Rick]

"The Horny Goat" <lcr...@home.ca> wrote in message
news:c9kvp8prqm55vvt4c...@4ax.com...

There is also some question about whether she actually got the job because
of her Survivor experience. She is married to a professional football
player whose family has connections in the entertainment industry, and it
was apparently that connection that got her the audition for the show.
Since she had met her husband long before appearing on Survivor, it's not
clear how big an impact Survivor really had on her TV career.

[Brian Smith]

"Rick" wrote in message news:knnrr4$h3m$1...@speranza.aioe.org...

One of the production companies for this show is CBS Television Studios.
Maybe Les and Julie are huge Cochran fans and made a few calls or just told
everyone involved with the show to give him a shot. Something like that must
happen when someone such as Malcolm gets to do a scene on one of CBS's soap
operas. If Cochran does a good job they'll keep him on, if not it'll be a
short gig.

I'll also mention that Cochran got a writing gig with EW as soon as S26 was
done airing. He's going to be writing about BB15 for them (at least he was
before this was announced). I think Dalton Ross might have pulled some
strings for him on that one.

Brian

[Michael Black]

On Fri, 24 May 2013, Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote:

> In article <alpine.LNX.2.02.1...@darkstar.example.org>,

> Michael Black <et...@ncf.ca> wrote:
>
>>> Not to mention our "sainted" Elizabeth Hasselbeck, who is in her 11th year
>>> as co-host on "The View", is a regular contributor on ABC's "Good Morning
>>> America", and won a Daytime Emmy Award.
>>>
>> She's certainly come a long way, baby.
>

> Usually in Hollywood, that means she blew her way to the top.

>
>
>> Remember her special item (it's been so long since they've been mentined,
>> I forget the proper Survivor technical term), those things in her hair? I
>> seem to recall she hoped to market them. I also seem to recall they
>> gradually disappeared as the season went by, as if she came to her senses.
>

> Penny Blossoms?
>
No, but the concept seemed the same.

Michael

[UCLAN]

On 5/24/2013 1:47 PM, The Horny Goat wrote:

> On Fri, 24 May 2013 11:28:40 -0700, UCLAN<UC...@invalid.net> wrote:
>
>> Not to mention our "sainted" Elizabeth Hasselbeck, who is in her 11th year
>> as co-host on "The View", is a regular contributor on ABC's "Good Morning
>> America", and won a Daytime Emmy Award.
>
> The bottom line is that her Survivor experience might have gotten her
> the job in the first place but she wouldn't have KEPT the job if she
> hadn't earned it.

Well, she actually got a substitute co-host gig as the result from
influence from her father-in-law, but yeah - she earned staying there
herself. And I don't think her right-wing opinions on an otherwise
left-of-center panel hurt her chances, either.

[The Horny Goat]

True - plus there are plenty of attractive women connected to second
string NFL quarterbacks - during season 2 a lot of the fans in
alt.tv.survivor figured she was with her more famous brother-in-law
... nope

Again - all that stuff might have helped her get in the door in the
first place but only she herself kept her there. Nothing would have
saved her had she not been able to do the job.

[The Horny Goat]

On Fri, 24 May 2013 16:37:30 -0600, "Brian Smith"
<dcg_...@hotmail.com> wrote:

>I'll also mention that Cochran got a writing gig with EW as soon as S26 was
>done airing. He's going to be writing about BB15 for them (at least he was
>before this was announced). I think Dalton Ross might have pulled some
>strings for him on that one.

To me as the father of a recent law school grad (from one of the
better Canadian law schools though not in the league of Harvard) it
pretty much goes without saying that Cochran can write competently and
has undoubtedly read one of the several guides on the mechanics of
screenplays.

Again like I said with Elisabeth - all that will get him through the
door but will not keep him there if he is not up to the task. In any
case with his resume, I highly doubt he'll have any difficulty finding
a firm to article with if he wants to do his bar exams in a year or
two (which I'm sure he will)

[Remysun]

Every now and then I hear a bit of Skupin news.