{"id":58492,"date":"2013-07-22T22:24:30","date_gmt":"2013-07-23T04:24:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/local-competes-on-summer-camp\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T16:09:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T16:09:27","slug":"local-competes-on-summer-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/local-competes-on-summer-camp\/","title":{"rendered":"Local competes on \u2018Summer Camp\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Courtesy Photo<br><br>Justin Jackson is a reality television star on Summer Camp, a USA Network gameshow<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt all sort of fell into my lap,\u201d said the 41-year-old outdoorsman. \u201cAn old high school friend knew someone who knew someone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last October, Jackson auditioned to star in the USA Network game show, \u201cSummer Camp.\u201d He made callbacks to the semifinal casting call in Los Angeles, where he competed against 50 other hopefuls in April. Three weeks later, Jackson was competing for a $250,00 prize with cameras filming his every move over an entire month.<\/p>\n

\u201cSummer Camp\u201d airs Thursday\u2019s evening, and close to 2 million viewers watched the premiere on July 11. This week\u2019s broadcast, however, is must-see television, Jackson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe show this Thursday is going to be the most epic episode of \u2018Summer Camp,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019ll be worth tuning in to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSummer Camp\u201d features 16 contestants from all different backgrounds and jobs, ranging from a hunter to a supermodel to a vegan yoga instructor, packing their bags and heading to a lakeside retreat in Big Bear, Calif. There, participants take part in competitions inspired by classic camp games and eventually face off in a \u201cCampathalon,\u201d an Olympic-style event.<\/p>\n

Being a reality television star has its drawbacks, Jackson admitted. Since the competition, Jackson made his first journey to New York earlier this month for publicity purposes, including an interview on NBC\u2019s \u201cToday Show.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNew York was definitely a learning experience,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to go back. They can have the Big Apple.\u201d<\/p>\n

Competing on the show also forced Jackson not to have any outside contact with friends or loved ones during taping. His fianc\u00e9e took it the hardest, but the couple have since married.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe watches every show to see if there was any romance,\u201d Jackson said jokingly. \u201cAnd she tells me there\u2019s still time for an annulment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackson\u2019s father and grandfather once logged areas surrounding Dolores and Norwood. An archer, Jackson said he\u2019s been hunting the area since his early teens. He now has a ranch at Groundhog Lake and a house in Bayfield.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing an outdoorsman is my calling card, and southwest Colorado has been a huge influence on his life,\u201d he said, wearing an \u201cI Eat Elk\u201d T-shirt.<\/p>\n

His father, Dale Jackson, said the greatest lesson he tried to instill in his son was the value of hard work. While he doesn\u2019t recall ever seeing a television twinkle in his son\u2019s eye, the elder Jackson said he wasn\u2019t surprised to see his son become a reality television star.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew he\u2019d be successful,\u201d said Dale Jackson. \u201cOne step leads to another.\u201d<\/p>\n

The game show is not Jackson\u2019s first appearance in front of a camera. He\u2019s previously worked on-air appearances for various outdoor hunting shows, but with only a single camera capturing his moves. Looking back, Jackson said he may have played the game differently, but he didn\u2019t have any regrets of becoming a reality star. Well, except for one, perhaps.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were so many cameras, I\u2019m worried about what my mom might hear me say,\u201d he said, cringing.<\/p>\n

The eight-episode series is expected to wrap on August 29.<\/p>\n

tbaker@cortezjournal.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy Photo<br><br>Justin Jackson is a reality television star on Summer Camp, a USA Network gameshow \u201cIt all sort of fell into my lap,\u201d said the 41-year-old outdoorsman. \u201cAn old high school friend knew someone who knew someone.\u201d Last October, Jackson auditioned to star in the USA Network game show, \u201cSummer Camp.\u201d He made callbacks to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58493,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[13,337],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-58492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-television"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58492"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63036,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58492\/revisions\/63036"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58492"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=58492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}