A contestant on the latest installment of Survivor will likely have a strong following incentral Ohio.
Taj Johnson-George is one of 16 contestants vying to win $1 million in the show's 16th seasonthat was scheduled to premiere on Thursday night.
Johnson-George has been in the spotlight before as part of the Grammy-nominated R&B group,SWV. Now she is taking center stage in Survivor: Tocantins - The Brazilian Highlands, 10TV'sAndrea Cambern reported.
"I wasn't going to be eating any bugs," Johnson-George said. "I'm not eating any babyembryos. I'm just not doing that!"
In addition to the legions of music fans she has across the U.S., Johnson-George, 37, is thespouse of a favorite son, former Ohio State Heisman Trophy winner Eddie George.
The show's producers went looking for a current or former NFL player's wife to try to outwit,outplay and outlast all the others and Johnson-George said she was game, Cambern reported.
"I think they were looking for someone posh, prissy, (and) comfortable in her posh setting - notbeing comfortable being out in the woods - they got me, the tomboy from Brooklyn," Johnson-Georgesaid.
She said that she had never seen a single episode of the original reality show.
"I had to watch them back-to-back-to-back and I thought, 'What am I getting myself into?'"Johnson-George said.
Eddie George said that he never had any doubt that his wife had what it takes to compete.
"That's what I love about her," George said. "She's so independent. She has dreams,goals that she wants to fulfill."
Learning to swim was at the top of Johnson-George's to-do list.
"I said you couldn't swim all this time (but) all of a sudden you're going on "Survivor," youcan swim like Michael Phelps," George said.
The couple has been married for five years and has a son together and another from a previousrelationship, Cambern reported.
"(Eddie) may walk on water in Columbus, but here we keep him right on the ground,"Johnson-George said. "We keep him level here."
Johnson-George said that she can overcome the backstabbing in Brazil and has a plan to kill theother competitors with kindness.
"I'm a friendly person," Johnson-George said. "I can make the devil feel loved."
Eddie George does not doubt that at all. He has faith that his wife will go far in both"Survivor" and in the game of life.
"Her resilience and her spirit - that's what people are going to come to love and that's what Ilove about her is her spirit," George said.
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