S42 Romeo Escobar

[Whimsy]

CBS bio

Name: Romeo Escobar
Age: 37
Hometown: Los Angeles
Current Residence: Norwalk, CA
Occupation: Pageant Coach

Favorite Hobbies: Traveling, beauty pageants and watching SURVIVOR

3 Words to Describe You: Competitive, intuitive and smart

Pet Peeve: I am a bit impatient, so I would say slow people, laziness and people who don’t know how to read a room.

What is the accomplishment you are most proud of? Several. I always dreamed of working in the industry so I am. I dreamed of owning my own pageant, so I do. I dreamed of traveling the world, so I have. I always accomplish my goals.

What is something we would never know from looking at you? How competitive I am. Because I am a small man, and gay and Latino, people always underestimate me. I love proving them wrong. I hate losing or being wrong. I always want to have the right answer and win everything I do.

Who is your hero and why? My mother and father. They are immigrants who came to this country with nothing. They wanted a better life for their family. Despite not knowing the language, they were able to build a home and offer me a better life than the one they had growing up.

Which past Survivor will you play the game most like? I don’t think anyone has played a game like the one I will play. But I do want to achieve great SURVIVOR historical moments like Sandra, Cirie, Parvati, Rupert, Rob. I want to be remembered.

Why do you believe you can be the Sole Survivor? I know I can be the final Survivor because I am likable enough and persuasive enough to convince people to vote for me. I always find a way to get what I want.
 

[awaken]

I like him. Hope he does well!

[LadyChatts]

Romeo's interview

https://ew.com/tv/survivor-42-romeo-escobar-finale-interview/

-Knew he was losing and was playing more for 2nd place

-Was surprised Mike didn't get more votes, and actually thought he'd win.  He thought Mike was playing a great game, making promises and then cutting those people, and he didn't understand why no one was going after Mike

-Says Drea dropped him at the merge because he was tight with Tori, and Drea hated Tori out there.  Apparently Drea told him about the eight person alliance, but gave him the honor of being 9th in that alliance, and said her and Rocksroy wouldn't vote for him (at least until she found out he was tight with Tori)

-Felt like he went from CEO at Ika to janitor at Kula Kula, and said he was playing from the bottom at the merge

-Debated whether to send himself to fire and give MaryAnne immunity, as he felt that would look good to the jury and was confident in his abilities.  But chickened out and thought if he had no chance of winning, why take the risk (for the record he would have taken on Mike in fire)

-Said he and MaryAnne had an alliance out there and she was very supportive of him, reminded him of the girls he works with in pageantry.  Taking her to the final 3 was an emotional decision

-In an all guy final 3, he knows Mike would have won, but thinks he could have gotten 2nd over Jonathan

-He says that he did fool people with his idol, but no one is going to admit it (considering Lindsay and Jonathan said no one bought it, I guess we'll never know for sure)

-In regards to the fake idol, he had to make one because Mike wanted to see it and compare it to his.  It sounds like they actually wanted to vote him off 5th and save Lindsay until 4th (since they felt she deserved it more than him), and that the only reason they didn't was because of his idol bluff.  If he fooled Mike, I'm not sure that's saying much lol  No offense to Mike.

And his coming out on national TV:

Quote

You talked a lot about family members of yours not knowing about your sexuality. What has the reaction been to you being a gay man coming out on national television?

I want to clarify. I live my life out and my immediate family knows about me. It's just my extended family, the ones that live abroad that didn't know about me. But the response was amazing. After the episode aired, they called me crying, "How would you think that we would not love you? We love you regardless." It was just amazing.

And I'll go even a step further. The response from the fans has been amazing because I'm getting messages from kids who are not out to their parents that were watching the episode with their parents on the couch saying, "Oh my God, that's me. And I can't tell my parents and you're so brave and one day I hope that I can be like you."

And then the parents were messaging me, "My God, I have this fear that my son or daughter might be gay and I don't know if I could accept it. But watching you, it just made me think twice and I'm going to love my child regardless. I never want them to feel like we won't accept them."

The most touching message was from someone living abroad in Iran. And I had no idea that they watched Survivor in Iran. Maybe he watched a clip on YouTube, but he messaged me saying, "I live in a very conservative Muslim country where homosexuality is not okay. Watching you made me feel seen and made me relate. And now I feel like I could be more brave and I can walk with my head held high." And those messages really just made me feel like I won Survivor anyways.

Edited May 26, 2022 by LadyChatts