J'Tia Taylor is a contestant from Survivor: Cagayan.
Despite infamously destroying her tribe's rice supply and being a liability in challenges, J'Tia managed to survive two Tribal Councils on the dysfunctional Luzon tribe before being voted out at her third.
Profile[]
Retrieved from CBS.com
Name: J'Tia Taylor (31)
Tribe Designation: Brains Tribe
Current Residence: Chicago, Ill.
Occupation: Nuclear Engineer
Personal Claim to Fame: Passing my dissertation defense, because I was the expert on the subject matter and held my own against my professors, and being the first black female to successfully defend and receive a PhD from the department.
Inspiration in Life: My mother who is 61 years old and still kicking, running marathons, traveling, and learning new things.
Hobbies: Watching movies, reading and playing strategic games.
Pet Peeves: Ignorant, close-minded people, being late/off schedule, and chunks in food/drinks (e.g. rocky road ice cream).
3 Words to Describe You: Intelligent, adaptable and competitive.
If You Could Have 3 Things on The Island What Would They Be and Why? My favorite "I Love Nerds" T-shirt, mint-flavored Mentos, and a really thick intricate novel that I could read repeatedly and find new meanings to.
Survivor Contestant You Are Most Like: Richard Hatch. He played the game authentically and originally since he had no precedence, and was true to who he was.
Reason for Being on Survivor: Winning a million dollars and beating everyone else, while on the adventure of a lifetime.
Why You Think You'll "Survive" Survivor: I'm very analytical so I'm good at breaking down/solving a problem and I'm also really good at getting people motivated and helping them achieve a goal.
Why You Think You Will Be the Sole Survivor: I have an irrepressible drive and tenacity.
Do You Consider Yourself a Brain, a Beauty or a Brawn? I'm definitely easy on the eyes but I'm a true Brain at heart. I would say I'm 1/4 Beauty, 3/4 Brain. My answer, in which I give myself a narcissistic compliment and then use fractions, pretty much confirms this.
Who Do You Think Has the Best Chance in the Game of Survivor: Brains, Beauty or Brawn? Brains always win... "Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will." -Ghandi[1]
Survivor[]
For her work as a nuclear engineer, J'Tia started the game on the Luzon ("Brains") tribe. Once they got to camp, she explained that she knew how the shelter should be built and began to tell everybody what to do and how to do it. She did not pull her weight around camp, preferring instead to bark out orders, thus annoying her tribemates. After Luzon lost the first Immunity Challenge by a large margin, J'Tia aligned herself with Tasha Fox. Kass McQuillen told J'Tia individually that she felt that J'Tia did nothing around camp and that she was planning to vote her out. Garrett Adelstein, however, approached J'Tia and Tasha, saying that they would try to get out David Samson because he was too cunning and strategic. After J'Tia argued with David at Tribal Council, he was blindsided in a 4-2 vote.
Once again, J'Tia contributed to the tribe loss at the second Immunity Challenge when she failed to complete the puzzle, despite being the first person to begin working on it. Back at camp, Garrett suggested having an open forum about Tribal Council to discuss voting out J'Tia. Tasha objected, saying that she would rather talk to people individually; this led to a small argument. Garrett and Spencer made it clear that J'Tia would not escape elimination this time.
Tasha decided to stir things up, seeking a more powerful role in the tribe. Down at the beach, she tried to persuade Kass to vote with her and J'Tia and form a majority. Garrett and Spencer Bledsoe came over to them to see what they were conversing about. Alone in the shelter, J'Tia assumed that she would be leaving, so she dumped most of the bag of rice into the fire. When everyone else returned to camp, J'Tia denied dumping the rice even though she was the only one not by the water, but later admitted it at Tribal Council. Even though J'Tia was obviously a large detriment, the women of the tribe decided to vote for Garrett due to his domineering ways and poor strategic skills, sending him home.
Although J'Tia was now in an alliance, she still managed to annoy her tribemates by asking if she could eat some of their dwindling rice supply before going to the next challenge. Luzon finally managed to win their first challenge, a combined Reward/Immunity Challenge, earning the tribe a tarp.
However, Luzon soon returned to their old ways, losing the next Reward Challenge. At the fourth Immunity Challenge, J'Tia was slow to retrieve the balls thrown by Spencer and Tasha, costing them valuable time. Luzon was defeated, again, despite rival tribe Aparri attempting to throw the Immunity Challenge. At camp, J'Tia pled her loyalty to Kass and Tasha, saying she would stick with them, while Spencer would not. Despite her lobbying, the tribe deemed her to be too big of a disadvantage and she was sent home by a unanimous 3-1 vote, finishing in 15th place.
| Episode | Tribe Affiliation |
Challenge | Challenge Type | Sit-Out? | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Luzon | Draggin' the Dragon | Reward/Immunity | No | Lost |
| Phish Farm | Reward/Immunity | No | Lost | ||
| 2 | Mazed and Confused | Reward/Immunity | No | 2nd | |
| 3 | Haulin' Oats | Reward | No | Lost | |
| Octopus Garden | Immunity | No | Lost | ||
| Voted Out, Day 11 | |||||
Post-Survivor[]
J'Tia tying the knot with her husband Graeme.
- J'Tia married her boyfriend, Graeme Ross Hart, on March 20, 2015.[2] They have two children together.[3]
- J'Tia, along with nineteen other former Survivor contestants, competed in the first Survivor-themed mini-competition of Sequester on May 23, 2020. She was eliminated in the fourteenth round, finishing in 6th place.[4]
- J'Tia subsequently played in the All-Star Sequester Mini on July 31, 2020 along with twenty other reality stars. She made it to the seventeenth and final round, finishing as the winner against Big Brother Canada 8 alum Jamar Lee in a 6-1 vote.[5]
- In 2021, J'Tia appeared on HGTV's House Hunters alongside her husband.
- As of April 2023, J'Tia started undergoing treatment for breast cancer.[6]
Trivia[]
- J'Tia is the fourth contestant to receive votes from all of their original tribemates but not be voted out at their first Tribal Council, following Shii Ann Huang, Ashley Massaro, and Gillian Larson.
- They would be followed by Alecia Holden and Patrick Bolton.
- J'Tia was mentioned by Jon Misch during "Method to This Madness" in San Juan del Sur: "This is like, seriously, I'm thinking like I'm J'Tia right now. J'Tia poured the rice on the fire, and Jon lost the flint."
References[]
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20230128131234/https://www.cbs.com/shows/survivor/cast/214785/
- ↑ http://www.people.com/article/survivor-jtia-taylor-wedding-photos
- ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/BkIlqN6hbuq/
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMzXEA5_0W8
- ↑ https://twitter.com/SequesterAccess/status/1289361577410473989
- ↑ https://twitter.com/JTiaPhD/status/1652106081789771776
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