Life after 'Survivor': Sean Kenniff of Massapequa recalls 'crazy, crazy time'

Part of an occasional series of articles catching up with Long Islanders who have appeared on reality TV shows.

When Sean Kenniff appeared on the first season of “Survivor” 22 years ago, the young doctor did not expect that the show would be a hit for more than two decades. In fact, during the filming on an island in Borneo, he thought, "there’s no way this is going to make air, and if it does air, I’ve ruined my career forever."

After all, one contestant was walking around naked (that contestant, Richard Hatch, ultimately won the $1 million prize), everyone was “smelly and stinky” and no broadcast network's reality TV show had yet captured the nation’s attention. “You’ve got to remember, you’re completely naive, you don’t know that it’s going to become the nation’s No. 1 TV show,” Kenniff says.

The 1987 Massapequa High School graduate was 30 years old and had recently left his job as a neurologist at what is now Long Island Jewish Medical Center when the show aired in 2000. He became known for his strategy of ousting opponents from the island in alphabetical order, for his enormous, handmade fishing pole that never caught him a fish, and for winning a challenge that allowed a family member to visit Borneo. Kenniff’s father, a former New York City firefighter who died this year on Father’s Day at age 83, traveled from Massapequa to the island called Palau Tiga and appeared with his son on one episode.

Kenniff is now 53 and working as a neurologist in a hospital system in South Florida. During his Zoom interview with Newsday, he had to take time out to answer a call about airlifting a patient from Florida home to New York. Kenniff and his wife, Esther, 44, who works in commercial real estate, have three children: Lilou Belle, 9, and fraternal twins Logan and Lola, 7.

Kenniff initially reported on health for CBS News after “Survivor” — that’s what brought him to Florida (where he says what he misses most about Long Island is the square pizza from Pizza Supreme in Garden City). He has since given up reporting, and instead holds a hospital position that has him work a week straight — on call nightly — and then one week off.

During his off weeks, he pursues interests outside of medicine — he created and is currently marketing the “Jerk at Work,” a riff on Elf on a Shelf. The Jerk at Work wears a white button-down shirt, a red tie and a green elf hat, and colleagues are meant to pass him around like a hot potato between Thanksgiving and Christmas. “My jerk is just upset that he’s working during the holiday season, so he decides to have fun with his co-workers. He plays pranks on them, harmless pranks, like wrapping a co-workers desk in wrapping paper,” Kenniff says.

CBS has floated the idea that Kenniff appear on another “Survivor” competition, he says, but he demurs, predicting there’s no way his abs would be ready for prime time.

“I don’t plan to work hard enough to be presentable on national TV ever again. I want to be passable in a suit, be passable in my scrubs, be comfortable in my pajamas, look OK to my wife,” he jokes. “And I’ve got three children now. I wouldn’t want to be away from them for a single day, let alone an entire month.”

But when he looks back on his time as one of the 16 competitors on “Survivor,” which just completed its 43rd season, Kenniff calls it “a highlight of my life.”

His most lasting memory? “To be out with nature... it was really releasing. Just sitting by the fire at night, you’re up with the sunrise, you’re down with the sunset, and it’s a really nice way to live,” he says.

Upon his return home, a period of national mega fame lasted for a few months. “That was crazy, crazy time. I tell all my medical students and residents, take big bold chances with your life like I did. A lot of times, it pays off.”

By Beth Whitehouse

beth.whitehouse@newsday.comBethWhitehouse1

Beth Whitehouse writes about families, parenting and great things to do with the kids on Long Island. She’s been a Newsday editor and shared a 1997 Newsday staff Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800.