Fans cheer for native son on 'Survivor'

TRAVERSE CITY -- If Michael "Frosti" Zernow had been eliminated from "Survivor: China," it wouldn't have been for lack of support.

Nearly 50 well-wishers, including family, friends and former high school coaches, packed the bar area of the Blue Tractor Cook Shop on Thursday to cheer on the Traverse City native in the season premiere of the hit reality TV show. Even restaurant staff were pulled into the action on the four large-screen TVs.

"I actually just got yelled at because I was over in the corner watching," said host Torri Ciesielski.

About a dozen people crowded around a table where Zernow's parents, Doug Zernow and Merilyn Ueno, sat wearing "frostirulestheworld.com" -- the name of Zernow's Web site -- and other buttons.

"People are excited about every part of this," said Ueno, who'd invited most of the well-wishers.

The series takes place in the ancient Jiangxi Province of China, where 16 contestants are split into two tribes on separate islands and forced to use their wits to live off the land for 39 days. Each week one contestant is voted off the show until only one "survivor" remains. At stake is a $1 million prize.

A 2005 graduate of Traverse City Central High School, Zernow, 20, is the series' youngest contestant. A film student at Columbia College in Chicago, he's also a professional parkourist, a form of acrobatics that involves overcoming obstacles in the fastest and most elegant manner.

"You could understand how he would be able to excel at this game," said Xavier Attee, 19, a former classmate who met Zernow on their junior high track team. "We had the same lunch hour and he'd be running up walls and flipping backwards."

Perhaps because of those skills, Zernow was chosen to lead his "Survivor" tribe in the show's first "challenge" -- a race through a series of obstacles including two walls -- carrying a heavy ceremonial mascot. As his Zhan Hu or "Fighting Tiger" tribe took the lead, the room erupted into cheers. But the tribe slowed as it slogged through a pond with the awkward mascot and eventually lost the game to the Fei Long or "Flying Dragon" tribe.

In a "Tribal Council" ceremony, Virginia chicken farmer "Chicken" Morris was the first to be eliminated from the show, meaning Zernow will compete in at least one more episode.

"You can either fold or you can meet the challenge, but Mike always met the challenge," Lober said. "For a 20-year-old, Mike is the one that will hang in there, cause Mike is different."

Photos

From left, Tom Wertz, Jan Matthews, Craig Carlson and Merilyn Ueno watch Ueno-s son, Michael 'Frosti' Zernow, on 'Survivor: China,' at the Blue Tractor on Thursday.