Reflecting on Our Reality: Seeing Stuttering on Survivor

In October, my fiancée and I went to a Survivor watch party hosted by former contestants. At that party, two former contestants with whom I’m friendly told me about Mitch.

Mitch Guerra

I was thrilled that someone who sounds like me would be on my favorite show. At the same time, I was worried about his edit and how he would do in the game. Would his stutter be his entire story, and not just a small part of his story? Would his fellow tribemates equate stuttering moments with lying? Would his tribemates vote him out because he has a “good story”? These questions and more raced through my mind as the premiere date got closer and closer.

I watched the first episode and was relieved to see Mitch was just Mitch. Yet, I still wondered if it was a matter of time before my concerns were validated. Episode two is where, for a segment, Mitch went from Mitch the Survivor player to Mitch the person who stutters. But the segment wasn’t what I feared could happen. Instead, it made me happy to be a lifelong Survivor fan. For those that need a reminder, Jeff Probst asked Mitch a question before the immunity challenge.

During his response, Mitch had a few stuttering moments. Probst took this opportunity to ask Mitch how he could best be an ally to people who stutter (PWS). What I loved about this moment is that Probst wasn’t taking this opportunity to make a viral moment. Rather, it was one person asking another person how to be supportive. It just happened to be captured by cameras and broadcast on CBS. Once the segment ended, Mitch went back to being Mitch the Survivor player. And it stayed that way.

As the game progressed, Mitch moved to the foreground and his stutter moved mostly to the background. His stutter came up only when it was necessary. The main time when he bonded with fellow contestant Cedrick McFadden, who stuttered as a child, over speech therapy. Besides those moments, Mitch was allowed to be Mitch the Survivor player and not Mitch the person who stutters. We saw Mitch have the full Survivor experience. He dominated in the immunity challenges. He found advantages. He was on the right side of the vote. He was on the wrong side of the vote. He played a great social game. He tried to make moves but couldn’t get the numbers together. He made the final five and was two days away from pitching his case to the jury about why he should win. But at the final five, the rest of the tribe told him he was going home because he was too likable and would win if he made the final three. Seeing him get his torch snuffed was emotional for me. For years, I wanted nothing to do with my stutter, was embarrassed by it, and wondered what others thought of me. To see a PWS be too likable to keep around caused me to shed a tear.

Ultimately, my fears going into the season were for naught. Mitch’s tribemates were open to his stuttering and viewed it as a non-issue (which it should be). They did not equate his stuttering moments to lying, but rather equated his stuttering moments to Mitch being his authentic self. His edit was one of highs and lows that were game-related, not stuttering-related. I hope that Mitch playing the game can show the rest of the population that PWS are just like everyone else and can do anything. More importantly, I hope that Mitch’s time on Survivor lights the torch for other PWS to be on reality TV and openly stutter on TV. That their stutter is one part of the story and not the whole story. And that ultimately, we don’t need any articles about stuttering in the media because it’s viewed the same way a person wearing glasses playing Survivor is viewed.

Mitch may have lost, but he won in his own way. He represented our reality in a way my 12-year-old and 32-year-old selves never thought possible. And for that, I thank you, Mitch.

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James Hayden sat down with Mitch Guerra about his Survivor 48 experience! Watch the video here.