Jimmy Tarantino

'''James "Jimmy T." Tarantino''' is a contestant from.

Profile
Tarantino, a fisherman who works as an inspector for the National Marine Fisheries Service. He has has two daughters - Marina and Jaclyn.

Jimmy T. says three words to describe him are charismatic, genuine and proud. Jimmy Tarantino's personal claim to fame is his children. Jimmy Tarantino's inspiration in life is Jim Ciaramitaro. "He's just a really good person."

Tarantino enjoys rowing, hiking and swimming. Jimmy Tarantino has a low tolerance for incompetence. Jimmy Tarantino says the "Survivor" contestant he is most like is "Rupert. I'm just as lovable." Jimmy Tarantino is on "Survivor: Nicaragua," because he takes pride in himself and his community. "They helped me win the Sears Casting Call and I intend on doing them proud." Why does Jimmy Tarantino think he will be the Sole Survivor"? "I'm resourceful and I have the ability to win."

According to Gloucester Times, a local newspaper in Gloucester, Tarantino was a rowing legend, being the winner of the 2009 International Dory championship.

Survivor: Nicaragua
He applied on Survivor not by submitting a videotape to CBS, nor being recruited by the casting crew. Instead, he became a castaway after winning the popular vote at a special casting call, locally conducted by the department store Sears (currently one of Survivor's sponsors). Being 48, Tarantino was part of the the "Older" Espada tribe, with members aging 40 and above. During his short time in Nicaragua, Tarantino clashed with most of his fellow male tribemates because of his talkative and somewhat assertive personality. He also continually complained that he felt underused in challenges, claming that his profound leadership back in his hometown would help them prosper, annoying his tribemates, most notably Marty Piombo. When Marty proposed a 'one voice' challenge strategy, he nominated Tyrone Davis for the role. Not backing down, Jimmy T. nominated himself for the role, though ending up still being ignored. At the fourth Immunity Challenge, where the tribes were to be blindfolded, Jimmy T. completely ignored Tyrone's instructions and raced through the course all by himself, that eventually ended as another loss for the older tribe. Despite apologizing for his assertiveness, the tribe felt that his loudmouthed personality made him hard to live with, and he was eliminated in a 5-3 vote.

Trivia

 * Jimmy Tarantino is the first castaway to not be selected in a conventional casting call or recruited by the casting producers.
 * In one of the Survivor: Nicaragua promos, Jimmy said that "America should have a pen and a note pad when they see him playing", but at the live reunion show Jimmy later admits that he regretted saying that, likely because of his early exit.