As 'Survivor' marks 50 seasons, we catch up with Tom Westman and other castaways from Long Island

Tiffany Seely has never been accused of low energy, or low intensity. This one-time "Survivor" contestant from Plainview is a fire hose of observations, thoughts, asides, non sequiturs and memories. Her life is an open book, and she randomly flips its pages during a recent interview, to her fans (they're great), her love of the show (forever), and her students at Jamaica-based Queens Alternative Learning Center for at-risk teens. ("I've got kids from all walks of life and have to adapt every minute.")

Particularly good at leaving impressions, Seely, 52, left a vivid one in 2021, when she had a solid run on the show. As one of those fans recently explained on Reddit, "she added so much light, comedy, strategy and mess to that season."

With this voice, style and openness, she brought something else, too — and there's pretty much only one place on the planet where that could have come from. In Seely's case, this would be off Exit 46 on the Long Island Expressway.

The landmark 50th season of "Survivor" gets underway Wednesday (CBS/2, 8 p.m.) — 24 contestants, most of them multiple season winners, but none from Long Island. It's an anomaly because over all those other seasons and years, beginning May 31, 2000, the show that launched a TV revolution has had a particular fondness for this place.

This place has returned the favor. Seventeen Long Island contestants appeared over 49 seasons, producing two winners (Sayville's Tom Westman, 10th season; Bayville's Tommy Sheehan, 39th) while another two came in second (Oyster Bay's Kim Johnson, Season 3; Nesconset's Domenick Abbate, 36th). Many of the rest, like Seely, had eventful runs.

Over the years, New York City has had 25 contestants, and Los Angeles a total of 53. Or put another way, if Long Island was a city, it would come in third.

Why this big, loving embrace?

"Well, who better to go to an island than people from Long Island," says Wantagh native Rob Cesternino, who competed in 2003's "Amazon" and 2004's "All-Stars." "There are so many colorful characters and big personalities, and people with a mix of street smarts and book smarts. It's just really a ripe breeding ground for a ton of iconic 'Survivor' players."

From the beginning, "Survivor" and "Long Island" understood each other — the grind, the grit, the hustle, the ambition, the maneuvering, the toughness — but there was something else, too. "Survivor" has always been about pride of community — or that mysterious and powerful glue holding people together, against all odds or apparent logic. Ghen Maynard, the former CBS executive who brought the show to the network, put it this way in a recent phone interview: "If 'Survivor' contestants had never known each other and been on a subway, they would have just looked straight ahead. Now, how many became life-long friends? The show inspired people to break down barriers."

Here are four Long Islanders who did just that.

TOM WESTMAN, SAYVILLE 

This former lieutenant of FDNY Ladder Co. 108 is still considered one of the best players in show history after winning "Palau." That brief glow from the spring of 2005 is long behind him. He now travels the country for insurance company NTA Life, selling supplemental policies to fire departments. "No one cares I was on 'Survivor,' " he says. "I get more accolades for the fact that I was a New York City fireman. I didn't realize it but when you get introduced as having a career with the FDNY that it's like doing 20 years with the New York Yankees."

Westman's "Survivor" memories are happy ones: "The gift that keeps giving. It was the one time you get into the big game and score the winning touchdown, and in my town of Sayville, or at some local watering hole, someone will say, 'Are you Tom, who won 'Survivor'? Invariably that will lead to someone pulling you up on the internet and going, 'No way that's you ...' "

"I like being part of the old guard, and being connected to the game when it was what it was. It's different now — not in a bad way, but it's a bit of a treasure hunt ... I miss the old style of putting teams together and making alliances," he says.

Westman, 62, says he "still has a tight little group from the show" and regularly sees teammates Ian Rosenberger "who's got two little kids and is living in the Williamsburg neighborhood where I was. Stephenie [LaGrossa Kendrick, who will also be on the 50th season] and I talk pretty regularly."

What is it about "Survivor" and Long Islanders? Born and raised in Queens, Westman says "as New Yorkers, we're a little more accepting than maybe some other parts of the country. We're not judging people by their cover when you first meet them. As Long Islanders, I'd say the same thing. We're a scrappy bunch and it's not an easy place to make a living, buy a house ... With 'Survivor,' there's a little bit of been-there-done-that, and 'we'll figure this out.' "

TIFFANY SEELY, PLAINVIEW 

Seely was among the first cast members of the so-called New Era of "Survivor" — a faster, shorter version of the show arriving after the COVID shutdown. Contestants of Season 41 in 2021 were quarantined before taping began, which forced a shorter filming schedule, and a faster-paced game. Contestants had to adapt, and Seely — above all — is adaptable.

Seely was raised in Forest Hills, and graduated in 1995 from SUNY Cortland with a teaching degree. Her mother, Shevi Reiss, died of ovarian cancer at the age of 38 in 1990. After testing positive for the BRCA gene mutation (which increases risk of ovarian and breast cancer), Seely underwent a prophylactic double mastectomy in 2007. With a play on the word "survivor," oncologists call someone like her a "previvor."

Seely got on the show as a last-minute sub, or "alternate," after someone else dropped out. She was voted out after the tribes merged, becoming the first member of the jury. It was there she revealed even more of that big, colorful, funny, emotional personality. (Among her claims to fame, she says, was "'Survivor's" "huge Jewish moment" when she said "Baruch Hashem" — "Blessed be God" — during a tribal council.)
"Oh, yeah, it was all worthwhile. It was superfun, like being in Hollywood, without being in Hollywood. You meet so many people and it opens so many doors and opportunities and you get invites to things you'd never get invited to — movie openings! I met Mark Wahlberg at one!" She regularly attends viewing and fan events in the city, like the watch parties "Brice and Wen Present."

Why has the show embraced Long Islanders like her over the years? "Long Islanders are down to earth, we're what you-see-is-what-you-get. We're all a little bit more grounded ..."

ROB CESTERNINO, WANTAGH

To play and compete on "Survivor" these days requires a deep dive into things like jury management; how to read "burned" players; how to track "idols"; how to recalibrate strategy when information shifts; how to hide information; or how to misdirect votes, and control your narrative.

For all that arcana, one must go to Cesternino's "Rob Has a Podcast," which he launched in 2010, and remains one of the most influential podcasts about reality TV. His book is coming in May: "The Tribe and I Have Spoken." Show host Jeff Probst once called Cesternino the "smartest person to have never won 'Survivor.' " Easy to see why.

In a phone interview from North Carolina, where he lives with his wife, Nicole, Cesternino says "The hook of the show in the beginning was about, how can these people overcome the environment and what are people willing to do to win $1 million?"

But the New Era of "Survivor," he says, "is really about a story of people discovering themselves on Survivor Island." (The show has been taped in the Mamanuca Islands of Fiji over the past 16 seasons.)

"I applaud what they've done in terms of casting," which is more diverse than before, "but the show now really leans so much into the growth of contestants. What 'Survivor' fans really want to see is some of the conflict between players. That's what we're tuning in for. That's what we loved, and what gives us so many classic moments." The cast isn't as "memorable as these larger than life characters" from the early years.

Nevertheless, "'Survivor' has meant everything to me because every good thing that ever happened to me has come out [of the show]. I met my wife through the watch parties that my parents used to have. Without going on 'Survivor,' I wouldn't have my wife or my family. It's given me my life's work.'"

SEAN KENNIFF, MASSAPEQUA

For a brief, heady and — he admits — strange period in American cultural history, Sean Kenniff was famous. This 1987 graduate of Massapequa High had just walked away from his job as a neurologist at Long Island Jewish Medical Center to compete on "Survivor" — the first season ("Borneo") and the only one where most cast members actually became household names.

Kenniff, 30 at the time, eventually achieved his renown with a quirky strategy of voting off castmates based on the alphabetical order of their names. He lasted until the end of the season.

Now based in Hollywood, Florida, with the Memorial Healthcare System, Kenniff says his work there as a neuro-hospitalist is "a wonderful, rewarding job" and he never thinks about "Survivor" until prospective patients Google his name. "Within two minutes they've already found out that they [remember] me as the Alphabet Killer on 'Survivor.' I always have to reassure them, 'trust me, I'm a really good doctor but a terrible reality TV show player. You're in good hands.' "

He now says he was cast on the show "because they were really looking for a dorky yuppie who would be useless in the jungle. And that's kind of what I was. They didn't misrepresent me in any way."

He says there was indeed a method to his alphabetical madness: "The other rival team came at the front of the alphabet while my team's names came at the back end. It looked like I was being impartial but I got to vote for the whole [rival] team before I voted for my own. It was smarter than it appeared on TV."

Looking back 25 years, "it was insane. ['Survivor'] was the talk of the entire nation. Yes, there was 'The Real World' on MTV, but nothing like this had ever been done. It was like the end of broadcast TV in one sense and the birth of reality TV."

For Kenniff, fame came from unexpected places. He recalls seeing Melissa Etheridge at the Grammys who told an interviewer that she "had been watching 'Survivor' the night before and 'my Sean got voted off.' "

This married father of three says, "I'm never going to be more famous than I was when I was on 'Survivor.' Bizarre."