'Survivor 13: Cook Islands' - Looking at the Tribes - Part One

<-- One of my cool new Survivor: Cook Islands logos created by Zoetawny! She rocks, y'know!

And, yes, I interrupt the Big Brother 7: All Stars live feeds report to kickstart my Survivor: Cook Islands blogging. I'll be posting a BB7 feeds report a bit later. So, if you have no interest in Survivor, check back a bit later!

The show's season is already off to a controversial start before the season even starts because they've split the tribes by racial or ethnicity groups. Good idea? Bad idea? I'm holding out judgment right now. I know the young, old, gender-based tribes didn't last but a week or two. I don't know how long the split will last this season. One thing I will say, though... knowing the four separate tribes ahead of time makes it a lot easier to list them by tribe in parts for my blogging. So, thank you CBS.

The new season will start on Thursday, September 14, at 8 PM ET/PT. Alas, the premiere is only an hour - a problem I have with the show each season. One castaway gets voted off before we even get a chance to know him or her! If you want to read up more on the show, the official CBS site is here. Cool spoilers for the show can always be found at the Survivor Fever site.

I'll be listing the tribes themselves in no particular order in four separate entries - four tribes of five members each. All images are the property of CBS and I'm just using them for review purposes here. The color at the bottom of the images should be the color of the tribe buffs. (Yeah, I did that and stuck names/ages/location on the photos.) One interesting thing to note - although the cast seems very California-heavy, most of the "Californians" aren't from California; they're just living there now.

Without further ado, I present the Asian-American Tribe:

Yul Kwon is a management consultant born in Queens, NY, but moved to the West Coast when he was 6 years-old. He was his high school's valedictorian, went onto Stanford, then earned his Juris Doctor degree at Yale. Is he all brains, no brawn? Well, his hobbies include boxing and "ultimate fighting." I'm not too sure what the latter is, but it sounds physical. He volunteers by working with children and says he's idealistic, compassionate and ambitious. From his bio, I believe him. He looks like a strong competitor.

No spouse or family is mentioned in his bio.




Rebekah "Becky" Lee was born in Flushing, NY. I made an error in her graphic which I just noticed now. Oops. She's listed by the show as being from Washington, DC and was raised in Pittsburgh, PA. She's an attorney who played tennis all through secondary school, going on to lead several Asian/law associations/clubs while in college. Her law interests focus on domestic violence and rights for battered women. She's been a kickboxer in addition to her tennis playing. She enjoys competitive sports, plays flag football, and practices yoga. She looks like she could have what it takes.

My apologies to Pittsburgh and Washington, DC. Again, no spouse or family mentioned.


Brad Virata is a fashion director who was raised in Oak Harbor, WA. In school he excelled in track, football and volleyball. He worked as a model, traveling through Europe and Asia. He then moved to California to study fashion and went to work for Guess. He's a beach vollyball player and surfer, as well as into power yoga and rollerblading. He's very invloved with charities in his area including AIDS, Project Angel Food, Big Brothers, and the Starlight Foundation.

Single, he lives with his dog Maxx.

Do we have a sole Survivor here?



Jenny Guzon-Bae was born in Chicago and raised in the suburb of Melrose Park, IL. She was a tomboy and grew up loving to play football, softball, basketball as well as tree-climbing and bike-racing. She's done professional writing and today is a real estate agent. From reading her bio, her sports run the gamut. I think this is one gal the guys should worry about. She also has a cerebral side. She was a news anchor for a Filipino-American television show in the Chicago area and seems very driven.

Jenny is married and has a son and three dogs at home.

Will she be the strongest woman on the show? Those who grew up as "tomboys" tend to make it pretty far. We'll see!



Anh-Tuan Bui is nicknamed Cao Boi (pronounced "Cowboy") and was a Vietnam War refugee at the age of 11. He currently works as a nail salon manager, but has held several jobs over the years including fisherman, farm hand, photographer, and used car salesman. He attended college, but it doesn't look like he holds a degree. His sports and hobbies include bicycling, hiking, sky-diving, meditation, photography and classical guitar. He's an U.S. Army veteran and is currently a member of the local Moose Lodge and is involved with the Boy Scouts.

Cao Boi is married, has two children, one dog and two cats.

Oh, he sounds very interesting, doesn't he?


So, there you go... the first tribe (in no particular order) for Survivor 13: Cook Islands. Will you be watching? Stay tuned right here on this blog for show recaps, newsy bits and more!