The killer B's

The new season of Survivor, which will divide tribes this time by Brains, Beauty, and Brawn is set to premiere next month. Today the cast for this upcoming season was announced. Here are some more details on the season and this newest set of castaway from EW.com

After a successful season of having former players compete with/against their loved ones on Blood vs. Water, Survivor will try another brand new concept when Survivor: Cagayan premieres with a two-hour episode on Feb. 26 at 8pm on CBS. This time, 18 contestants will be separated into three tribes: brawn, brains, and beauty. And while all of those contestants will be new players — marking only the third such all-newbie season in the past nine installments — one of the names may be familiar: former NBA All-Star (and recent visitor to North Korea as part of Dennis Rodman’s basketball troupe) Cliff Robinson.

Robinson played 18 seasons in the NBA for the Portland Trail Blazers, Phoenix Suns, Detroit Pistons, Golden State Warriors and New Jersey Nets — averaging over 14 points a game and making the playoffs every season but one (sorry, 2004). So how did he end up on Survivor? “He’s a fan of the show,” says host Jeff Probst, who in the past has also welcomed other professional athletes or coaches like Gary Hogeboom, Jimmy Johnson and Jeff Kent to compete on the reality hit. “There’s a common thread through all the former athletes and people that have been involved in sports like Jimmy Johnson, and it’s the competition. Jeff Kent talked about it a lot. He said, ‘This won’t define me, but it is something I want to try.’ Cliff was the same way. He made a lot of references during casting to the high he got from having to win in order to eat. He’d say, ‘Because if I don’t win, I might not be asked back, and if I’m not asked back I don’t make my money, and if I don’t make my money I don’t eat. So I have to win to eat.’ And that’s the essence of Survivor: You have to win to stick around.’”

Robinson — who, naturally, will be on the brawn tribe — is not the only figure from professional sports to appear on Survivor’s 28th season. Miami Marlins president David Samson will also be competing, even though that meant leaving his team in the middle of the season last summer to play (Survivor: Cagayan was filmed in July and August). “I was surprised that David could get away from his job while his team was still playing,” says Probst. “But he was definitive in his answer and very to the point: ‘I have it worked out. Next question.’ And that’s how he plays this game.” (Samson will be on the brains tribe).

The rest of the cast includes a pro poker player (brains tribe), a former Miss Kentucky Teen USA (we’ll let you guess what tribe she is on), a nuclear engineer (again, pretty obvious), two former NFL cheerleaders (one on brains, one on beauty), and two police officers (both on brawn). For a full cast list, see below.

The whole concept of brains, brawn, and beauty was something producers stumbled into late in the process of planning out season 28. “We didn’t really know until late in casting,” Probst tells EW. “We were deep into casting and loving everybody. It was very exciting. It’s the first time we’ve had all new players in a while. We were feeling really good. And it was actually [casting director] Lynne Spillman who came over as we were having something to eat and said, ‘I got an idea: What if we separate them into brains, brawn, and beauty?’ It was a pretty exciting moment because after 27 seasons, finding a new fresh way to continue the social experiment is not easy.”

Probst says part of the fun of the season comes from seeing how the players will react to the labels they are given. “The brawn tribe does get bumps and bruises, and if they need wood they just pull a tree down,” says Probst. “And the beauty tribe does sit around and bowl with coconuts and walk around in their underwear and talk about their haircuts or their latest modeling job, And the brains tribe, just as you would have expected, sits around talking about the greatest way to structure a shelter and where they should put it. And the funny part is watching each tribe have success or failure in their perceived expertise. The brains tribe does not necessarily have the best camp, but in talking to them, you would be certain that they did by the way they talk. And it’s interesting watching that play out and how much of that is because they really are the smart tribe and how much is that they believe they are the smart tribe because they’ve been told they are the smart tribe, so they start behaving as the smart tribe.”

Probst told EW back in December in his first comments about the season that going back to the all-new players concept was a nod to fans that asked for an installment with no returning players: “We listened to our fans. That was really it. They’ve been saying over and over, ‘We love the returning players, but we’d like to see a cast of new players.’ And that’s why we did it.” In another nod to old-school Survivor, there will be no Redemption Island this time around, so when players are voted out of the tribe, they are out of the game for good.

Family feud

With the new fall TV season quickly approaching comes the announcement of a new Survivor. The big twist for this next installment, dubbed 'Blood vs. Water', is that returning players will be squaring off against a tribe of their family members. For more on what you can expect this season and who will be a part of the cast, here's the story from EW.com:

Jeff Probst already announced on Entertainment Weekly Radio that the next season of Survivor — subtitled Blood vs. Water — would feature returning Survivor contestants playing with (or, rather, against) their loved ones. Then, yesterday we revealed that one of those pairs would be Survivor: One World’s Kat Edorsson and her boyfriend, Big Brother season 12 winner Hayden Moss. Now the rest of the cast can be officially unveiled. And that cast will be playing in the most twist-heavy Survivor season ever.

Among the cast of Survivor: Blood vs. Water —which filmed this past May and June in the Philippines — will be a contestant from the group that started it all, as season 1 player Gervase Peterson returns to compete along with his niece Marissa. He will be joined by three million dollar winners — Tina Wesson from The Australian Outback (who will be playing with daughter Katie), Aras Baskauskas from Panama (with brother Vytas), and Rupert Boneham, who has never won in his three previous outings but did collect a million dollars as the winner of a special fan voted prize given away during the All-Stars season. He will be joined by his wife Laura.

In a surprise, the new cast also features three players from One World — which is generally considered one of the weakest Survivor seasons ever. Joining Kat will be Monica Culpepper (and husband Brad) and the controversial Colton Cumbie (and fiancé Caleb). Rounding out the cast are threepeaters Tyson Apostol (with girlfriend Rachel) and the former Candice Woodcock (now Candice Cody, with husband John), as well as Laura Morett from Samoa (with daughter Ciera).

Survivor host Jeff Probst gives credit for the loved ones concept to Survivor casting director Lynne Spillman. “It’s something she brought up for years,” Probst told EW.com. “But this year she pitched it and she said, ‘I think I can pull it off. I think I’ve found the right amount of couples.’ And once we started talking about it and talking about who would play, it went from something we thought about doing next year to something we were going to do this season. It was one of those moments were I left and went ‘Oh, everything’s different.’” As if having returning players playing against their loved ones was not a big enough twist, there are several other smaller changes, some of which could dramatically alter the way the game is played. Here they are:

* For the first time ever, the game will not be 39 days long, but rather 39-and-a-half days, as the couples will begin the game the night prior to day one with a new twist titled “Day Zero.” The 10 pairs will be sent out at sunset to 10 different locations to live by themselves for the night. They will then all meet up to be officially welcomed by host Jeff Probst and start the game the next morning. “The whole idea was to try and get them thinking and maybe believing that they would play as a pair,” says Probst.

* Just minutes after congregating, the returning players and their loved ones will be split into two different tribes, with the returning players making up the yellow Galang tribe and the newbies comprising the red Tadhana tribe. “Suddenly your partner becomes your adversary, your competition,” says Probst. “And that was the whole premise of Blood Vs. Water. How is that going to play out in a game where only one person can win?”

* First impressions can be key in the game like Survivor, and that will prove true here as just moments after meeting each other, each team will vote one member off their tribe. They will later be informed that these people have not been voted out of the game, but rather will be sent to Redemption Island, which makes its return after having been absent for the past three seasons. There they will battle to stay alive and reenter the game at a later point.

* Confused yet? Well, it gets even more confusing! Jeff Probst will then immediately offer each of the loved ones of the two people voted off the opportunity to trade places with them, meaning that if, say, returning player Tina is voted out of her tribe at the start, her daughter Katie can opt to take her place at Redemption Island instead, and Tina would then join the tribe of newbies.

* As mentioned, Redemption Island is back. Anyone voted out will be sent there and will then compete in a three person duel. The last place finisher in each contest is out of the game for good, while the top two remain. However, if someone’s loved one is still in the game they can take their loved one’s place before a duel. (So if, say, Monica is at Redemption Island but her husband Brad thinks he would do better at a duel involving strength, he can swap places with her, electing to do the duel while she takes his place on his tribe. They could then swap again at the next duel if it is a contest better suited to her strengths.) “That puts blood and water to the test,” says Probst. “And we’re gonna do it at every duel. So the first time early in the game, somebody may say ‘It’s just too early.” But as those duels increase and they get closer to what they think might be a merge, their strategy is going to start to change.”

* That’s not all when it comes to Redemption Island. The person who finishes first in each duel will also get to give a clue to the location of a hidden immunity idol to any person from either tribe that they choose. “There’s all these things you can do,” says Probst. “Because for a moment, even though you’re on the outest, furthest part of the game, you have a little bit of power.”

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.)

World domination

It seems like just yesterday that Sophie was winning Survivor: South Pacific and yet here we are again with the announcement for the cast of Survivor: One World. Below is a pic of the new tribemates.

But along with these new contestants come several new changes and twists to the game itself. Here are the highlights:

-As was announced at the end of last season, while there will be two tribes, everyone will be living at the same camp. Contestants will have to decide how much they want to co-mingle with members of the other tribe

-The tribes will be seperated by sexes again this year

-Redemption Island is gone (thank heaven!). This means more reward challenges and once your torch is snuffed, you're done.

-Two hidden immunity idols will be in play, but the twist this time is that if you find one, you have to give it to someone on the other tribe. This could make for some very interesting new strategies and alliances.

-There will be a handful of host-less challenges this season where the tribes will be giving instruction and supplies and left to run the challenge themselves. That will either be really interesting or an unmitigated disaster.

-Finally, some of the notable castaways this season include Survivor's first little person, a gay Republican, and two guys who have a fascination with Tarzan.

For more details on the individual cast members and what's in store for the upcoming season, you can read about on EW.com Survivor: One World begins February 15th.

Pac Men

It's that time of year again to unveil a whole new cast of Survivor as the show prepares for its 23rd installment, Survivor: South Pacific. This time, there will be 16 new contestants (pictured below) along with two returning castaways. The returning members won't officially be announced until Wednesday, but it has long been leaked online that they are Ozzy and Coach. One notable new contestant is 19 year old Brandon Hantz, who is the nephew of Russell Hantz, who had competed in three out of the last four seasons. Will he be just as evil and scheming as his uncle or will he play against type? From the rest of the group we have a lingerie football player, a mortician, a medical marijuana dispenser, and a former Miss Washington. For full information on the cast, as well as some news to changes being made with both the immunity idol and redemption island, you can check out Entertainment Weekly's coverage here. Survivor: South Pacific begins Sept. 14th.