If you knew the backstory of how the spunky Dee Valladares applied for Survivor, you would be shocked that she secured a spot on the beloved competition series.
Submitting her audition tape just two months before the cast was finalized for Survivor 45, Dee sent in her video just like all of the other Survivor applicants (through the official casting website). However, she took it one step further.
Keep scrolling to see the “wildly enthusiastic, empathetic, and fiery” castaway’s wonderful — yet terrible — tactic that got her cast on Survivor.
Dee Valladares’ winning move to land a spot on Survivor 45
“I told myself, ‘How can I get above the noise?’ because there are thousands of people that are auditioning for Survivor, and then I’m like, ‘You know what? I’m just going to post my audition video on Instagram,'” Dee shared with Entertainment Weekly before diving into how she managed to grasp the attention of Survivor casting producer Jesse Tannenbaum.
After posting her audition tape on Instagram, where she has amassed 13.8k followers, the Cuba native said that she encouraged all of her family, friends, acquaintances, ex-boyfriends, and more to comment on the video, tagging Tannenbaum (who happened to be on vacation in Hawaii at the time).
Amassing hundreds of comments on the post, Tannenbaum himself then weighed in on Dee’s controversial choice to post her audition video on Instagram (as well as excessively tag him in the comment section): “I don’t turn my phone on silent, just in case there’s a family emergency, so I remember trying to go to bed one night hearing ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. She had asked everyone that follows her, and their friends who follow them, and their friends that follow them, to tag Jesse Tannenbaum, and I was just like, ‘Oh my God, I hate her.'”
While it may not have been the most innovative approach, spamming Jesse Tannenbaum worked out in her favor in the end!
Dee caught the attention of the casting team just 24 hours later, but contrary to popular belief, it was not to offer her a follow-up interview.
The entrepreneur explained, “The very next day, I get a call from a casting person, and she’s like, ‘Hey, I need you to take down that video. You’re driving my boss crazy,’ and I’m like, ‘Okay, that’s good. That means he saw it, right?'”
While she took down the video (per Tannenbaum’s wishes), this interaction kickstarted “a playful love-hate relationship” between the duo, resulting in a series of follow-up interviews with him and longtime host and executive producer Jeff Probst.
After his first interview with Dee, Probst’s notes were as follows: “LOVE HER! So engaging and bright. Instantly likable out of the gate. She’s funny. She is super likable. I love her, love her, love her. She really listens. She picks up on every cue. She’s very tight with her family. She knew she would be an entrepreneur. I see her on the show. Great winner. Could win.”
While her audition process was definitely out-of-the-ordinary, we could not be more thrilled that Dee is a part of Survivor 45 — she is truly a fan favorite!
To see how the rest of her journey unfolds, tune into CBS every Wednesday at 8pm ET/PT.