Fan-ning the Faves

Yes, it's already time to talk about Survivor, the cast for the latest season was just announced today and once again includes some familiar faces. They are re-doing the fans vs. favorites season, so half of the players are returning for their second try at the million. I have to say that the list of so-called "favorites" is pretty underwhelming. However host Jeff Probst is very enthusiastic about this season and he's typically not phony about his feelings, so maybe there's something there that I'm missing right now. Regardless, I'll be sure to tune in Feb. 13 when the new season debuts on CBS. Below is the cast photo and some more intel on the cast and season overall courtesy of EW.com

Survivor will try to follow up its best season in years by reviving a concept from one of its best seasons ever when Survivor: Caramoan — Fans vs Favorites premieres Feb. 13 on CBS. And the names of both the new fans and returning favorites can now be officially revealed. This marks the show’s second Fans vs Faves venture after Survivor: Micronesia, widely considered one of the program’s strongest offerings. And one of the Fans from that season, Erik Reichenbach (who was most famous for giving up his immunity necklace and then being voted off), will now be making the jump to the Favorites. He will be joined by another person who gave away immunity only to be voted out, Brandon Hantz (Survivor: South Pacific).

Also on the Favorites tribe will be John Cochran (South Pacific), Dawn Meehan (South Pacific), Phillip Sheppard (Redemption Island), Andrea Boehlke (Redemption Island), Francesca Hogi (Redemption Island), Corinne Kaplan (Gabon), Brenda Lowe (Nicaragua), and Malcolm Freberg, who began filming on the new season only two-and-a-half weeks after he came in fourth place on Survivor: Philippines. (The seasons were shot back-to-back in the Philippines in the spring of 2012.)

All of the returning players come from relatively recent seasons and will be playing for the second time. None come from the first 15 seasons of the show, and only Erik and Corinne did not appear in one of the previous five installments. (Survivor: Caramoan — Fans vs Favorites marks the show’s 26th season.) According to host Jeff Probst, the emphasis on more recent returnees is no accident. “We realized that we had to make a decision,” Probst told EW.com. “Do we only bring back our oldest iconic stars, or do we begin to birth new stars. And when we sat down with the list and said, okay let’s look at the people that we haven’t brought back yet, we felt like we had a really good group. And it was a bit of a turning point for us to say, we’re now going to look at the next generation of Survivor all-stars.”

Of course, many of these all-stars are known more for their big gaffes in the game. In addition to Erik and Brandon handing away immunity, Cochran made a hotly-debated flip that led to his demise, and Francesca was the very first person voted off her season after she openly took on Boston Rob. In fact, after seeing whom he was playing against this time around, Cochran fretted about the company he was keeping. “I was looking around all the CBS stuff to see if I could find a logo for the season somewhere because I’m dying to know what this season is subtitled because it sure isn’t being called Greatest Survivor Players of All-Time,” Cochran told EW.com right before filming began in May 2012. “I’m afraid it’s going to be some sort of unflattering thing like Dunce Island where we have to wear dunce caps instead of buffs or something. Because there are a lot of people that made weird moves or poor moves like me.”

As for the 10 new players who will comprise the “Gota” tribe taking on the “Bikal” tribe of Favorites, they include Miss Missouri 2011, a firefighter/EMT, a female racecar driver, and former United States Marine Corps Sgt. Shamar Thomas, who gained a measure of Internet fame after a video posted of him berating New York City police officers for excessive force during an Occupy Wall Street demonstration. (The full list of 20 new and returning players is below.)

And while Survivor: Caramoan will not feature the 21 straight days of rain that fell on the contestants last season, Probst promises that “The weather is a problem. This is a difficult season. The Survivors get pummeled. And there are evacuations. There are things out of the norm that happen this season that will be very memorable. I was on the boat a lot, going back and forth between camps.”

Probst also teases that love will be in air this season. “There’s also some romance early on which continues to blow my mind! It knocks me over that people want the jungle love! As much as you can’t believe we still do a final three, I can’t believe romance happens in front of other people in a game like Survivor.” (He’s right — I do hate the final three format.)