Gervase Peterson

Gervase Peterson
Gervase hails from Philadelphia and currently lives in Willingboro, New Jersey. He is a youth basketball coach and his previous occupations include an auditor, a field representative for Nielsen Media Research and a test technician for I.B.M. He attended Lincoln Technical Institute for two years.

Gervase's proudest accomplishment is living to the age of 30. His perfect day would consist of playing with his kids, enjoying a game of basketball and football, followed up by a large incredible meal. His hero is his mother for all the sacrifice and love she gave after his father passed way when he was fifteen years old.

His three favorite hobbies are watching movies, basketball/football and anything revolving around actress Salma Hayek. Gervase describes himself as confident and responsible, but has trouble dealing with indecisive people who are afraid of trying new things. His birth date is Nov. 2, 1969.

Gervase is famous in Survivor lore because despite not being able to swim, he defeated Kelly Wigglesworth, a professional rafting guide, in a rowing competition.

Borneo
During the original Survivor season, Peterson worked only when necessary, and was able to successfully preserve much of his strength until the individual challenges in the later rounds. Although at times it made him appear lazy, he claims that this was part of his strategy.

As a member of the Pagong tribe, Peterson was one of the first Survivor contestants who was forced by circumstance to eat cooked rat for sustenance, and was the very first contestant to remark that cooked rat actually tasted good. In one episode, he made a disparaging remark comparing women to cows, but his teammate Joel Klug laughed so hard that the comment was attributed to him, and the female members of Pagong voted Klug off at the next opportunity.

After the two tribes merged into Rattana, Peterson (like all the remaining members of Pagong) did not realize that former Tagi members Richard Hatch, Kelly Wiglesworth, Rudy Boesch, and Susan Hawk had formed a voting alliance until the Pagong faction had been outnumbered and outmaneuvered. The Tagi alliance, along with former Tagi member Sean Kenniff, eliminated Peterson in Episode 10.

Amidst the fervor that swept the nation during Survivor: Borneo, a hacker announced that he had gained access to an area of the CBS Survivor website containing a photo array of the 16 contestants. An "X" was displayed across the picture of everyone except Peterson. This led many to believe that the network had inadvertently revealed Peterson to be the winner. A few episodes later he was voted off, and CBS admitted that its so-called snafu was done purposely to fool viewers and pundits as a way of keeping the true winner's identity secret (The final tribal council, where Hatch was voted the winner, had been pre-recorded along with the rest of the season).

Challenge History

 * Tribal Immunities Won: 3 (out of 6)
 * Tribal Rewards Won: 3 (out of 5)


 * Team Rewards Won: N/A


 * Individual Immunities Won: 1 (out of 4)
 * Individual Rewards Won: 1 (out of 3)


 * Total Number of Challenges: 17 (10 tribal, 7 individual)
 * Overall Challenge Record: 7-10