One of the most common jokes about reality television is that its cast are only involved with it to become famous. You do see it from time to time on Survivor, mactors join the show with the hopes of getting picked up as the next big thing. You see it even more around the more comfortable settings of Big Brother or the Bachelor. There is definitely some truth to the fact that these people hope to become famous from doing these programs.

As with most jokes, they derive out of some truth. The truth about reality shows, and in my specific case, Survivor, is that back in the day, these people did become pseudo-celebrities. In the early 2000s, American television had not yet been overrun by hundreds of different reality shows filled with talentless people hoping to make a quick buck. It was still a fairly niche market and it carried a little bit of mystique to its name.

Nobody could have predicted how big Survivor would become. It became fairly clear during Survivor: Borneo’s original run that Mark Burnett had a hit show on his hands. This was back when people still watched television and an average of 28.3 million people tuned in each week to see Richard Hatch take home the prize money. To put that into perspective, Survivor: Game Changers averaged about 8 million viewers to still win its timeslot. It’s safe to say that times have changed.

Coming out of Borneo, there was no way the cast could have predicted what would happen. Almost overnight, these people became household names. Not just Richard, the majority of the cast became sought-after celebrities to make appearances on different shows. People would request autographs from these contestants. All of a sudden, these regular people had become actual celebrities.

A bunch of the castaways ended up making appearances on the Rosie O’Donnell show; one of the big day-time talk shows of the time. Rosie was also well-known to have been a big fan of the show in its heydays. The cast would also appear on David Letterman and receive actual camera time. In the early days, Dave even kept up with the show. They even had multiple top-tens dedicated to it.

I would have loved to see Elisabeth having to read Colleen’s George Bush line, probably wouldn’t have been as cheerily delivered. Then again, Colleen’s happy and slightly weird demeanor is what made her such a hit in the first place. She became America’s sweetheart after competing on Survivor and was the season’s breakout star.

It will forever be weird to think that Colleen parlayed her appearance on Survivor into a star part of Rob Schneider’s terrible movie, the Animal. For a short period of time, Colleen looked poised to make a legitimate jump into Hollywood stardom before she decided to retreat into obscurity. We have recently learned why this may have happened but it doesn’t change the fact that Colleen will always pop up whenever I do a That 70s Show binge watch on Netflix.

When Nick at Nite wanted to promote their Three’s Company timeslot, who else to do so but Kelly Wigglesworth, Jenna Lewis, Gervase Peterson, and Rudy Boesch? This is a great example of how big Survivor was at the time. Watch these segments and try to think of any rational reason why these four should be doing this spot? There isn’t any but they were big names in 2000 and they drew in your attention.

Colleen wasn’t the only one to make appearances on popular scripted television shows. Rudy Boesch made an appearance on JAG, a very well-known Navy themed drama, as himself. Rudy was popular enough to include on the show, playing Rudy Boesch, thus becoming sort of a world-breaking event where he exists in the JAG universe.

Then of course, there was the carousel of game shows the Survivor contestants were asked to appear in. Richard and Sue Hawk appeared on Dog Eat Dog. Richard, Sue, Jenna, and Gervase all appeared together in a Hollywood Squares episode as panelists. Something the show would do later on as well. Richard even made an appearance on the Australian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. He would never have made it on the American version because at the time, that was Survivor’s biggest competition.

Without a doubt, my favorite Survivor: Borneo games show related appearance is the members of the cast who played a game of the Weakest Link. It featured some early-game players getting revenge on the Tagi tribe, Richard having an early downfall, in a somewhat ominous sign of Survivor: All-Stars, and everybody playing the actual game terribly wrong. If the Borneo cast helped set the stage for future Survivor strategy, they took three steps back when it comes to the Weakest Link strategy.

Because the Weakest Link was on a competing network, they aren’t allowed to actually mention Survivor. Though they allude to it using terms from the show itself and there’s an obvious chemistry between the players, a person who would have never heard of Survivor would be so confused over how this show played out. It’s absolutely fantastic.

I would be remiss if I failed to mention the most confusing and fantastic appearance by any Borneo cast member, and it belongs to Sue Hawk. While the Survivor frenzy was sweeping the nation, Live with Regis was looking for a new co-host to replace Kathie Lee Gifford. While they were finding a replacement, Regis would invite different people to sit in with him as the co-host for a show.

On this particular day, Sue Hawk was invited. The guest happened to be George W. Bush, then the Republican representative for the 2000 Presidential election. This was a simpler time when presidential candidates simply watched reality shows as opposed to starring in one.

The entire interview is so weird. Regis clearly has no time for Sue’s shtick. Sue is about as professional as you might expect and George Bush is simply trying to be as cordial as possible. Regis also makes sure to slip in some Millionaire questions because you can’t let Survivor have the spotlight. It’s also great every time any of the three speak over each other because it happens very often.

It wasn’t just the Survivor: Borneo cast that got a taste of the fame. The Survivor: the Australian Outback cast for example, was featured on a Survivor themed week of Hollywood squares. This included a pre-shot segment making light of Michael Skupin falling into the fire, acted out by Skupin himself. The joke is that Jerri Manthey was the one to push Skupin in the fire. The irony of course is that nowadays, people might have supported that storyline given how Skupin’s story turned out.

Anytime you can watch a show featuring Tom Bergeron dressed as Jeff Probst with Gilbert Godfried and Whoopi Goldberg mixed in with Survivor: the Australian Outback contestants, you just have to do it.

Like the first season of Survivor, the Australian Outback had a few breakout characters. The season’s runner-up, Colby Donaldson, quickly became everybody’s golden boy. His great looks and quick wit made him an instant favorite among the majority and it helped launch him into an acting career. Colby got roles on shows like Just Shoot Me!, Joey, Bones, and even joined his fellow Survivor alumni Rudy in making an appearance on JAG. He would later host the show Top Shot and really do well for himself in terms of his acting career.

Still, Colby’s best moment as an actor will forever be his appearance on Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Curb’s entire humor revolves around awkward pauses and Larry David’s quirkiness. Plus this scene puts Colby up against an actual survivor, somebody who went through the Holocaust. It takes legitimate talent to be able to deliver a funny performance under those lights and Colby knocks it out of the park. In fact, I’ve heard that it was supposed to originally go to Ethan Zohn but he simply couldn’t pull it off. Colby had to be brought in and he absolutely nailed the part.

Then there’s Elisabeth Filarski. She replaced Colleen as the Australian Outback’s “girl next door”. Like Colleen, she was universally loved for her tough attitude and cute personality. She finished fourth and came out of her season as the biggest potential celebrity. After her appearance on the show, she married Tim Hasselbeck, a starting quarterback for many years in the NFL.

In 2003, Elisabeth made her first appearance on the View. She was on the show for almost 10 years. Elisabeth even garnered an Emmy for her time as co-host of the View. From there, she went on Fox & Friends, a right-wing talk program that airs on the Fox network. Elisabeth has become very well-known for her conservative views and attacks on the Liberal agenda. She also distanced herself as much as possible from her Survivor past.

While the first two seasons definitely had the most “celebrity” level contestants, the shine didn’t fade until after Survivor: All-Stars. We saw a few episodes of Survivor: Family Feud. If you ever wanted to see Jonny Fairplay and Rupert Boneham interact on a non-Survivor level, this is your chance. As in every appearance he makes, Rudy steals the show on this as well.

Then there is Kill Reality which may be the oddest and most entertaining show revolving around Survivor stars. Back when Rob Cesternino hadn’t yet created his podcast, he had decided he was going to pen a horror movie whose cast was entirely made out of reality stars. This included people from the Real World, the Amazing Race, Paradise Hotel, the Apprentice, the Bachelor and of course, Survivor. The movie was going to be called the Scorned.

Somehow, Rob and his partner, Big Brother 1’s Josh Souza, got a television deal to also film the making of this movie. The cast of the Scorned were going to live in a house and have their experience of filming the movie taped and shown to the world. Essentially, this was a reality show about former reality TV personalities trying to make it into acting.

It was a shit-show of a product and there were so many hjinks. This may have been the height of Jonny Fairplay’s post-Survivor debauchery and it showed on camera. In fact, the series ended because Fairplay took a deuce on the Bachelor’s Trish Schneider’s bed while she was sleeping in it. Quality stuff.

After All-Stars, contestants started fading away into the background once the show was over. It’s crazy to think of how big these people used to become. Imagine someone like Cagayan’s Jefra Bland or Worlds Apart’s Joey Amazing suddenly landing huge acting gigs after Survivor.

This used to be a reality and it annoyed “real actors”. It’s probably why the running joke about reality television is now that these people are trying to become famous. For some, they got a little too close to the sun and in the long run, it may have hurt future contestants’ chances of eventually making it big.