Gervase Peterson

Gervase Peterson is a contestant from and.

Borneo
His past 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.

Blood vs Water
Name (Age): Gervase Peterson (43)

Tribe Designation: Galang

Relationship to Significant Castaway: Marissa’s Uncle

Previous Season: Survivor: Borneo – 3rd jury member

Current Residence: Philadelphia, Pa.

Occupation: Cigar Lounge Owner

Why Did You Want to Return to Survivor and Play with Your Loved One? I wanted to return to Survivor because I felt that I could win the game if given another chance, and what better way to play than to play with my niece, Marissa. She is just as driven, focused and competitive as me. This is the ultimate experience and I get to share it with her.

Survivor: 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 about women, stating that "Girls are the stupidest things on the planet next to cows." However, 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 Day 30. "Gervase's Jury Confessional"

- My vote is for Kelly, because I feel Kelly played this game better than anybody else. She came into this thing, she formed her alliance, played both sides of defence, did her lion thing. But you know what? When it comes down to it, it's all you do, that's what this game is about, and she did it better than anybody else. She stayed low under the radar, and just did her thing. And I think she really deserves this more than anybody else here. And just on one of Sue's comments, that's what, in my town we call, a 'sore loser', but when Sue did all the backstabbing and the lying and throwin' the knives everywhere, she was happy! And if she was sitting in Kelly spot right now, she'd be thinking about nothing but this million dollars and that's it. That goes to show you how trait she is. I mean it just disgusts me what she just did! It was so foul! And you know Sue was talking about how I'm bad. Sue was talking about a rat and a snake, while Sue formed an alliance and that's her little snake part, and then she did the rat part when she lied to Colleen to her face when Colleen asked her who she voted for. So I mean that just goes to show you how people play this game when it comes down to it, if it's saving their butt they'll do anything to save their butt, when they're out of the game, they cry about it, they bellyache about it the whole stinkin' time, and it makes me sick! So Kelly I hope you win it, and after you win it you can stuff it in Sue's face!

Post-Survivor

 * He named his youngest son, Gunnar Tiga Peterson after the first season's location: Pulau Tiga.
 * Like several members of the Borneo cast, Peterson has attempted to parlay his popularity into an acting career. Thus far, his most notable role has been that of absentee father Leo Thompson, whom he portrayed in 2001 on the CBS daytime drama As the World Turns. Additionally, he made a cameo appearance in The Scorned, which featured numerous personalities from American reality television.
 * He is the owner of a cigar lounge in New Jersey http://www.burnzcigars.com/about/
 * Gervase is still good friends with tribemate Joel Klug.

Trivia

 * Amidst the fervor that swept the nation during the airing of 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 prerecorded along with the rest of the season).
 * Gervase was nominated in America's Tribal Council in the "Sexiest Male Contestant" category but lost to Colby Donaldson.
 * Gervase's luxury item was a Deck of Playing Cards.
 * Gervase and Ramona Gray are the first contestants from the state of New Jersey.
 * Gervase is the first contestant to cast a jury vote for a winner, which was one of the only seven revealed just after the Final Tribal Council. His confessional was one of the longest in Survivor history.
 * He is also the first jury member to ask a jury question.
 * Gervase is the first African-American male in Survivor history.
 * Peterson holds the record of the longest time between seasons for a returning player, spanning 13 years (26 seasons).
 * Both of Gervase's starting tribes were yellow.