Six of the Chilean miners who survived being trapped underground for 69 days sat down for an exclusive interview on 'Anderson Cooper 360' (weeknights, 10PM ET on CNN.) Cooper asked the men how they fought off despair during their ordeal.

"We used many things, especially faith; we also relied on the experience of the older miners, and had to remain united; we relied deeply on each other," explained one of the miners through an interpreter.

Then Mario Gomez, who is the oldest of the miners, explained how he wrote a letter to his wife of 32 years, telling her that if he made it out of the mine alive, he would give her the church wedding they never had.

We're pretty sure this little romantic detail will be featured prominently in all upcoming dramatizations of the mining accident.

Now that their long captivitiy is over and they've been reunited with their loved ones, the 33 miners who were trapped for weeks inside the San José mine near Copiapó, Chile can start adjusting to life above ground. But what happens now?

It seems likely that their ordeal will prove life-changing in many ways, not least financially. The men have been hailed as heroes and the world is eager to hear their stories. Their families are believed to have been besieged with lucrative offers of TV interviews, movies, book deals and endorsement offers.

According to 'Broadcasting & Cable', industry insiders estimate that the miners' story could be worth several hundred thousand dollars to TV production houses, and with over 1,000 journalists camped in and around the town of Copiapó, the race is on to secure the first exclusive TV interviews.

If there's been a more universally compelling human interest story than that the 33 Chilean miners, trapped in a collapsed mine for 69 days, it's difficult to recall it.

For the first 17 days of their ordeal, the miners had no idea if anyone would ever find them in their tomb a half mile beneath the surface. Then, once contact was made, they had no idea when they'd be getting out, as nobody was sure how long it would take to reach them.

Florencio Avalos was the first miner to smell fresh air, pulled above ground in a 13-foot long cigar-shaped capsule designed by NASA in collaboration with the Chilean Navy.