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 Reality-show stars are Liza Siegel’s surrogate siblings.
She’s spent several birthdays with the casts of Survivor and The Apprentice, consoling them, listening to them, and, most importantly, studying them.
Siegel, 50, is a consulting psychologist on the set of these wildly popular TV shows.
She’s always been a listener.
“My mom tells me that when I was in the second grade I would take my little brothers into the other room to calm them down if they were upset,” she says. “My first term paper in ninth grade was on the ego and the id. I am just a nerd.”
And a determined one, it seems.
As a single mother of one, she managed to graduate from NKU in ’84 with top honors.
“My daughter, Penni Lane, who was six at the time, actually attended some of my statistics classes with me and would write down the formulas in her own notebook,” she remembers.
Siegel’s observations over the years have given her enough credibility to land a few gigs with major networks.
 The Apprentice, NBC’s brainchild of three years, influenced her to write Suite Success.
The book draws many examples from the reality show, chronicling actions of some larger-than-life contestants.
“The defining moment,” she explains of her book, “was probably in casting where we give 50 finalists a huge battery of psychological tests and then interview people for an hour about their life history.
“What we noticed was that a very similar personality profile kept coming up over and over,” she adds. “The people who were successful both in business and in life had profiles of someone who is extroverted and friendly, high energy, optimistic and doesn’t get down or cry over spilled milk.”
Not too long ago, Liza, who lives in Tiburon, Calif., was spending countless hours with the contestants of Survivor: China. The country was muggy during the six-week trip, and it was difficult to navigate with the language barrier, she says.
Like other Survivors, the losers – people who are voted off – are sequestered on location until the show is over.
The show’s apparent impact on them is a telling story, Siegel says.
“Survivor contestants go though a much more profound experience that can often be life changing,” she says. “Because they are going without food and shelter for up to 39 days and they are in an unusual social group dynamic, it often teaches people some very profound lessons.”
Liza likes her “me” time with her husband, Tony, and Penni Lane.
But she doesn’t get much of that.
She’s always eager to do another reality-show stint for an extended amount of time.
“We are often in places that don’t have running hot water; we sometimes live on generator power, often don’t have Internet or TV, and mostly what we do is talk,” she says of Survivor. “Still, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”
What does Tony think?
“It’s like being married to a sailor,” he says.
He can relate. Tony, an officer of the U.S. Coast Guard, travels regularly, so he doesn’t have many qualms with his wife’s demanding career.
The two often wind down for two weeks after their trips, shutting off the world as they catch up socially and mentally.
“It’s not been easy,” Tony says with a chuckle. “I can tell you that.”
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