Our next cast assessment for Island of the Idols is Jack Nichting, who belongs on the No Collar tribe from Survivor: Worlds Apart.
Based solely on the preseason coverage, the cast of Survivor: Island of the Idols is one of most diverse yet. Usually, you can tell when casting is looking for a character type, like trying to cast another Tony or another Cirie, but this season doesn’t seem to be striving for those archetypes.
If any player this season falls under one of those casting types, it’s got to be Jack Nichting. Both his appearance and his way of speaking are bound to draw comparisons to Jay, Joe, Ozzy, and dare I say it, Fabio. However, you can’t typecast him into the exact same role as any of those players because Jack will still be bringing his own unique personality and skillset to the table.
As seen in his CBS bio, Jack is a 23-year-old Grad Student living in Virginia who has an open view of his future career. He’s gone through some hardships including losing his father at a young age and has vowed to take advantage of the time he has to live. With his free spirit attitude, Jack wants to explore the world, and Survivor seemed like the perfect place to start.
In his interview with Mike Bloom at Parade.com, Jack mentioned that he’s out here mainly for the experience. He genuinely can’t wait to face all of the hardships of island living including hunger and rain. He’s also very eager to try to provide for his tribe in any way he can, including spearfishing and climbing up a tree to get coconuts, and this is where the Ozzy comparison comes in.
During his interview with Josh Wigler, Jack literally was climbing up a palm tree, although he couldn’t find any coconuts! It will definitely be fun watching Jack go nuts around camp exploring and looking for food. However, he’s more than a jungle boy.
Despite his boisterous personality when an adventure comes his way, Jack can still sit in the shelter and build relationships. Much like Spencer 2.0 in Cambodia, Jack is a very open person who won’t shy away from talking about deep, personal stuff. If he can come off as genuine, he won’t have a problem in cultivating strong social bonds, even with those significantly older than he is.
It’s one thing to build strong relationships in Survivor, it’s another thing to manipulate them to your advantage. Jack certainly has that ability, but it could get him in trouble. He spoke to Josh Wigler about the ways he practiced lying before flying out to Fiji, and although I don’t doubt his ability to deceive people, I’m worried that he might try too hard and get his torch snuffed early.
Based on what we know so far, it’s hard for me to see Jack take home the million-dollar title, however, he has the right attitude towards the game to leave his mark. Expect Jack to bring along an entertaining personality, and maybe even be at the helm of some of the biggest moves of the season.