Shannon Quinn was a formidable player on Survivor New Zealand from the outset. Photo / Scott McAulay
Shannon Quinn was a formidable player on Survivor New Zealand from the outset. Photo / Scott McAulay
Shannon Quinn is the latest contestant to be eliminated from Survivor New Zealand and the Auckland-based zookeeper says her time on the show was an "amazing experience" - but she was not prepared for the reactions of people online.
Quinn played a cut-throat game from the outset, forging multiple falsealliances and breaking certain people's trust to gain others'.
The contestant says the feedback she has received online has been a mixed bag.
"I've got about half the people that absolutely hate my guts and can't stand me, and the other half of people really respect the way I was playing and really liked it and wanted me to go further," says Quinn.
"By the end of the game when I got out I almost felt a bit brainwashed... I was believing what everybody had said about me, that I was this nasty, villainous person and I had hurt all these people's feelings.
"But now that I've been watching it back, I'm seeing it as it was. I was just playing the game. I wish that I had continued to do that because I think that was a fine way of playing and I don't think that it was that villainous."
Shannon was the ninth person to be eliminated from Survivor New Zealand. Photo / Scott McAulay
Some viewers have noted that there has been a double standard in the way the female contestants have been treated, with contestants such as Barb and Quinn being attacked for the same moves that male contestants got away with.
Quinn agrees. "Myself, Barb, Shay, we've all been completely vilified, for really - all we've been doing is playing the game. None of us have been nasty towards the other players or personally attacking them.
"Some of the boys did get blindsided and didn't see it coming, and I think that it is really interesting because I do think if potentially it was a male that had made some of those moves, I don't think that they would be seen in the same light.
"If you look at some of the boys anyway; everyone on there has gone against someone at some point. But none of them are at all seen as a villain."
Shannon says female contestants such as her and Shay (centre) have been "completely vilified". Photo / Scott McAulay
Quinn took some time to adjust back into normal life after her elimination - her time on the jury was spent exploring Nicaragua and attempting to return to a normal diet ("no matter what I ate for about the first week and a half, I felt so bloated and sick.")
Though she's focused on her zookeeping career, having taken up a role at Auckland Zoo, Quinn still has to deal with the unpleasantness of online trolls. People get "carried away," she says, as demonstrated by a message she received only yesterday.
"I have no idea who this person is, it's just a complete random," says Quinn before reading the message aloud: "'We all know that you have quite an ugly kind of face, but you are even more ugly on the inside lol.' (sic)
Shannon says online trolls have been getting "carried away". Photo / Scott McAulay
"Who has enough time in their life to go to the effort of hunting down someone from a reality TV show to throw abuse at them?" says Quinn.
The finale of Survivor New Zealand is next Wednesday, July 5.
