Tamara Johnson-George, better known to “Survivor” fans as Taj, originally appeared on the cast of “Survivor: Tocantins – The Brazilian Highlands” in 2009. Joined on the season by legendary players like Benjamin “Coach” Wade, J.T. Thomas, Stephen Fishbach and Tyson Apostol, Taj emerged as a strategic threat early in the game, orchestrated a cross-tribe alliance that carried her into the Merge and through to the Final Four.
Though Taj has never returned to the series, she remains one of the few “Survivor” castaways to enter the game with fame and fortune already in her pocket. A former pop star in the soul group SWV (“Sisters With Voices”), Taj joined the cast of “Tocantins” at 37 as a Grammy-nominated singer, an accomplished author, the wife of former NFL pro Eddie George.
Now, 16 years after her season aired, Taj took to social media to answer fans’ burning questions about her “Survivor” experience, revealing the hardest parts of playing the game, her opinions on other competition reality series, and her honest reaction to her shocking blindside elimination just short of Final Tribal Council.
Taj Reveals the Hardest Part About Playing ‘Survivor’
Despite entering the game with more than six millions records sold with her soul group, Taj told fans in a live video on TikTok that she was more than prepared for the harsh conditions and deprivation of food and sleep that every “Survivor” must face in order to outwit, outplay and outlast the competition.
“I grew up in Brooklyn, poor as dirt,” said Taj, now 54. “Hungry everyday. No nothing. No resources, so to go out there, I was good.”
CBS/GettyThough she was unfazed by the wilds of the Brazilian Highlands, Taj added that, for her, the hardest part about playing “Survivor” was being away from her son, Eriq Michael George.
Born in 2005, Eriq was just three years old when Taj joined the “Tocantins” cast.
“To be away from my baby, that was my Achilles heel,” said Taj, adding that she likely annoyed her fellow tribemates by constantly talking about her son. “I know I got on their nerves talking about Eriq Michael George. Everything was, ‘I wonder if he’s doing this, I wonder if he’s in trouble, I wonder if he’s eating, I wonder if he’s up, I wonder if he’s standing, I wonder if he’s taking a bath.’ Everything was about my baby.”
Taj Reacts to Her Shocking Final Four Blindside Elimination
Speaking further on her “Survivor” experience beyond her constant thoughts of her son, Taj similarly opened up about her shocking fourth place elimination. Despite allying herself with power players like Stephen Fishbach and eventual “Tocantins” winner J.T. Thomas, Fishbach ultimately decided that Taj was too big a threat to bring to Final Tribal Council , convincing J.T. to help him eliminate her ahead of the season’s Final Immunity Challenge.
CBS/Getty“I didn’t have any ill feelings towards anybody, except when my alliance blindsided [me],” said Taj. “I could’ve gone Brooklyn on them, but I was like, ‘You know, it’s just a game.’”
“The name of the game is ‘Survivor’ and they were worried that I would win,” she added.
Despite describing herself as the “most underestimated player” ahead of the 2009 season, Taj admitted that she wasn’t really sure what to expect when she joined “Survivor.”
“When I went out there, I didn’t have a strategy, I really didn’t, because I was just like, ‘You know what, it’s a TV show, they’re gonna dirty me up.’ I was thinking ‘They’re gonna tell me how to do it, what to do, what to say,’” she told fans, adding, “I didn’t know it was real. I had no idea. So when I got out there I was just being myself, laughing and joking and trying to come up with ways to get around the system.”
Taj Proclaims ‘Survivor’ as the ‘Realest’ Reality Show on TV
Elaborating on the “reality” of “Survivor,” Taj argued that the series is the “only ‘reality television’ on television.”
“All the rest of that [stuff] is scripted and crafted,” she added, referring to other reality competition series, though she didn’t name names. “Not on ‘Survivor.’ When them cameras turn on, they never turn off, not one second. Anything that happens, they gonna get it. They don’t tell you what to say in the confessionals. You can talk about people however you want, the way you want, as long as you want.”
Taj similarly announced her plans to host live reaction videos for “Survivor 50: In the Hands of the Fans,” which is set to make its legendary CBS debut, featuring the series largest-ever cast, including her fellow “Tocantins” alum Benjamin “Coach” Wade, in February 2026.
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‘Survivor’ Star Reveals the Hardest Challenge She Faced on the Show