HOLLYWOOD — After Ethan Zohn won the $1 million Survivor: Africa prize, a group of TV critics spied Survivor 1 winner Richard Hatch in a corner of the huge CBS Television City studio. Was he surprised the pro soccer player won?

        “It's who I predicted, but I'm not doing interviews,” Mr. Hatch said curtly. Then why did he come to the press party, if he wouldn't talk to the press?

        “Guys, if I said I'm not doing interviews, then I'm not doing interviews,” he said.

        Soon, TV critics here for the winter press tour learned that the newest Survivor winner wasn't a million-dollar jerk. Mr. Zohn, 28, spent the night chatting with critics and TV stars attending CBS' Survivor-themed party inside huge Studio 46, where George Clooney broadcast his live Fail Safe last year.

        Mr. Zohn, a Massachusetts native living in New York, said not telling his family that he was one of two finalists in the adventure game show wasn't difficult.

        “No way I was going to tell anyone about the show,” said Mr. Zohn, who gorged on his mom's Rice Krispie Treats when he returned from Kenya last summer. (Not goat's blood?)

        Not that he wasn't tempted to ruin the surprise.

        “We asked him a lot of questions trying to trick him. But he didn't give us any information,” said his mother, Rochelle Zohn, whom he hugged immediately after the conclusion of Bryant Gumbel's Survivor: Africa Reunion show. “And he was right. It wouldn't have been any fun if he told us the outcome.”

        CBS executives had spent six months planning a “star party” for Survivor contestants and their families, plus about 150 journalists. “It's been like planning the Normandy invasion. We've had meetings upon meetings, and did timelines and flow charts,” a CBS publicist told me.

        While some TV critics surrounded The Guardian star Simon Baker, a few feet away Survivor 1 finalist Rudy Bosch was sipping a Budweiser and exchanging e-mail addresses with fellow castaway B.B. Andersen.

        Judging Amy publicists couldn't entice many critics to interview star Amy Brenneman, while people flocked to be photographed with some Amazing Race contestants.

        Heather Paige Kent, Patricia Heaton, Doris Roberts, Chuck Norris, Gil Bellows, Jim Gaffigan and Hattie Winston stopped and waved to L.A. camera crews on the red carpet outside Studio 46. But once inside, they didn't draw a crowd like Brandon Quinton, the gay Dallas bartender on Survivor 3 whose black thong was visible above his trousers.

        Tattooed Lex van den Berghe came to the party in a long-sleeve red shirt, hiding his body art. His wife, Kelly, wore a short-sleeve black blouse that didn't hide several dozen tattoos down her right arm, portraying orange stars with smiley faces.

        Mr. Van den Berghe, who was eliminated from the competition broadcast Thursday, came to the party clean shaven. He hated the beard so much — Survivor producers forced him to grow it back for the live finale — that he shaved during the 20-minute break between the reunion show and the post-game press conference with TV critics. (Mr. Zohn shaved his Friday morning.)

        Critics marveled at the seamless transition from the final Tribal Council vote taped in Kenya last summer, and the live vote count by host Jeff Probst in Hollywood Thursday. Survivor executive producer Mark Burnett explained that he replicated the Tribal Council set the hard way — by shipping the 10 huts, benches, baskets and gourds from Africa.

        “It's exactly to the inch. Almost everything there we brought back. That was a huge deal shipping everything back,” Mr. Burnett said. He also announced that Survivor 4, which will premiere Feb. 28, was shot on the island of Nuku Hiva in Marquesas, near Tahiti, in the South Pacific.

        While Mr. Zohn missed mom's Rice Krispie Treats, goat farmer “Big Tom” Buchanan told TV critics at the press conference that he “dreamed of 4-foot cheeseburgers” in Kenya. When he came home, that's what he ate, washed down with Mountain Dew, until he threw up.

        Runner-up Kim Johnson, the 57-year-old grandmother from Long Island, craved chocolate candy bars. “We talked about food all the time,” said Mrs. Johnson, who won the final immunity challenge (in 104-degree heat) and $100,000 for placing second.

        During the press conference, America's newest millionaire said he might not play goalie again for pro soccer teams in Zimbabwe, Cape Cod or Hawaii.

        “Probably not, to tell you the truth,” he said.

        For the next three hours, Mr. Zohn graciously negotiated his reward challenge — chatting with reporters, TV stars, former Survivor participants, and the family and friends of his African castmates. His brothers, Leonard and Lee, snapped photographs of Ethan hugging celebrities and signing countless autographs.

        Shortly after 11 p.m. (PST), or 2 a.m. Cincinnati time, the newest sole Survivor was greeted by a big hug and kiss from Tina Wesson, the Survivor 2 winner. They spoke for a few minutes, then resumed chatting with celebrities, their families and TV critics, hours after Mr. Hatch snubbed reporters.

        Well, two out of three isn't bad.
       

        E-mail: jkiesewetter@enquirer.com

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