Nick “The Snake” had a lot at stake in All Stars comp
South Aussie contestant Nick Iadanza’s Australian Survivor: All Stars stint is over, but he reckons it happened for a reason.
Confidential
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Teacher Nick “The Snake” Iadanza’s found out reality TV bites after being voted off Australian Survivor: All Stars … but believes it was the universe’s way of looking out for him.
That’s because staying on the show would have meant the Adelaide father-of-one missing out on a milestone.
“I didn’t want to miss my daughter Paloma’s first crawl or first word … and as soon as I came home within three days she started crawling,” Nick, 31, right, tells Confidential about his now 14-month-old daughter with wife Christine.
While missing them was distracting for Nick, they also inspired him to push himself beyond his limits.
“(Australian) Survivor’s now a different beast,” he says, when asked to compare All Stars to his previous stint; Nick was one of Australian Survivor’s original players, earning the nickname “The Snake” for his devious tactics.
“In the first three days of All Stars I played more Survivor than in 37 days of season one.
“I finally got to play at the (US Survivor) speed.”
Describing All Stars as “Survivor on steroids”, Nick’s proud of his time on the show.
His achievements have included solving seven out of seven puzzles which made him, as host Adelaide-born Jonathan LaPaglia said, “The Puzzle King”.
“I couldn’t be happier – I ticked off everything on my Survivor bucket list except winning,” Nick says. “I’ve done what I needed to do.”
Nick, who’s back teaching English at Prince Alfred College, says he’s happy to close the chapter on Survivor.
“You can’t keep me out of the classroom. I’m Nick the teacher,” he says. That said, Nick the teacher wouldn’t rule out competing in a US versus Aussie Survivor series.
And asked who he thinks will win All Stars, Nick prefers to say who he’d like it to be; namely, SA contestant wedding DJ Aaron “AK” Knight, who was known as the “friendly manipulator” and one of the most-talked about contestants on season two.
“He’s the epitome of an all star – no one plays Survivor like AK,” Nick says.