Area woman gets shot at being the next CBS ‘Survivor’

Cincinnati State student taped shows in Samoa, which will air starting Sept. 17.

Monty Brinton/CBS Marisa Calihan, a Butler County native, is one of the 20 castaways set to compete in "SURVIVOR: SAMOA" when the 19th installment of the Emmy Award-winning reality series premieres at 8 p.m. Sept. 17 on the CBS Television Network.

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By Richard O Jones, Staff Writer Updated 8:45 AM Friday, August 28, 2009

Reily Twp. native Marisa Calihan, 26, will be competing in the 2009 edition of the CBS game show “Survivor.”

According to her father, Hanover Twp. resident Clay Calihan, Marisa was in California last year pursuing her interest in music and songwriting when she struck up a conversation with a “Survivor” producer in a Kinko’s/FedEx.

“The person asked her to audition for ‘Survivor,’ but she told them she wasn’t interested,” Clay Calihan said. “But then a few months later, they called her again and she decided to go for it.”

Marisa, who is currently a student at Cincinnati State College, disappeared earlier this spring, said her aunt Sophia Townsend, and the family was told that she was in California again, marketing a line of hair accessories she had created.

“She is very creative and artistic,” her father said. “She sings and writes songs and can do just about anything she wants to do.”

But the only thing she was doing with her hair accessories was wearing them in Samoa while taping the “Survivor,” which premieres Sept. 17 on the CBS television network.

According to her father, Marisa went to Talawanda schools until her parents divorced. She then attended Cincinnati’s School for Creative and Performing Arts for a few years, before graduating from Purcell Marian High School in Cincinnati.

According to a CBS news release, the “Survivor” taping lasted 39 days and the 20 contestants had to embrace the Samoan culture by incorporating an ancient tradition of electing an individual leader of the village.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.

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