Jenna Morasca

Encyclopedia : J : JE : JEN : Jenna Morasca

Jenna, on the right, on the cover of Playboy, with Heidi Strobel (on left), August 2003

Jenna Morasca (born February 15, 1981 near Pittsburgh) was a reality TV contestant who was the million-dollar grand prize winner of .

Morasca was one of sixteen contestants composing the cast of . It seems as though her strategy going into the game may have been flirtation, as she was immediately disappointed to be on an all-female tribe, Jaburu. Despite this possible setback, she rose to a power position in her tribe by formulating a strong alliance with best buddy Heidi Strobel, as well as two other women. On Day 13, the tribes were to be shuffled and re-selected with Jenna serving as "Captain" of Jaburu. She was strategic in this opportunity and chose men that she felt might be looking for a new alliance. On the new tribe, they decided to cement an alliance to overthrow the previously dominant men. Once the tribe merged, male leader Roger was shocked to be overthrown. After that, it seemed that Rob Cesternino was the game's true puppet master. Despite his betrayal to his alliance with Jenna, he never did vote her off. If this was because Rob saw Jenna as a non-threat, then he was wrong. In the Final Four, Jenna was all set to be the next gone, as the three others (all men) had fortified a strong alliance - but Jenna fought through the maze to become the winner of Immunity.

In the final three, Jenna won Immunity again and had to choose her opponent in facing the jury. Though she knew she couldn't beat Rob, she verbally claimed she was going to vote off the opponent she knew she could beat (this being Rob) because she wanted to beat the best. This statement, though incorrect (and false), is said by several jury members to have earned Jenna their respect. She won in a 6-1 vote against Matthew, becoming the youngest Survivor winner ever.

Morasca's performance on Amazon was made notorious when she took off her clothes for peanut butter and Oreo cookies. This met much controversy, as the challenge required no removal of clothing to get food, merely waiting for the offer. The argument against this statement, however, is that Jeff Probst never intended to offer Peanut Butter and Oreos, and once Jenna had uttered the deal, he begged the crew for it. Therefore, by getting naked, Jenna got exactly what she wanted. From this viewpoint it can be seen as a strategic move.

Morasca's popularity was varied. With some viewers, she was extremely unpopular due to her treatment of other players (especially deaf contestant Christy Smith). Other viewers argue that this "rudeness" could also be perceived as straightforwardness. Later, Jenna claimed that she's growing up, and that she's got a lot to learn. After the show, because of her unstable popularity, Jenna was lead to believe that she would be remembered almost exclusively as "that bitch who took her clothes off." Jenna's famous nude strip won her a spread in Playboy magazine, a spread that earned her yet another million dollars. Morasca also appeared near-nude in an ad for PETA with her boyfriend, Survivor: Africa winner Ethan Zohn. The ad combatted wearing fur and followed the slogan "We'd Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur!" In 2005 Morasca replaced Richard Hatch as co-host (with Dalton Ross) of CBS' Survivor Live, a talk show devoted to the current season of the series. She has since hosted the show throughout three entire seasons - , , and .

Morasca appeared on , but regretted leaving her cancer-battling mother. While in Panama, in the third episode, Jenna claimed she felt a vibe that her mom need her. She withdrew from the game, rushing to her mother's bedside. Carla Morasca passed on eight days later.

Jenna Morasca had a minor role in the made-for-TV movie The Scorned.

External links

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.