Sixteen contestants to start.
One’s a teenager.
Nine are twentysomethings.
Four are thirtysomethings.
Two are fortysomethings.
And there’s a 53-year-old.
Only two models and one bartender this season.
Mark Burnett and Jeff Probst continue to cleave to the fiction that no one is cast on the basis of their looks, including these girls:
Sierra Reed, model
23, Los Angeles, CA
Sydney Wheeler, model
24, Raleigh, NC
Carolina Eastwood, bartender
26, West Hollywood, CA
Erinn Lobdell, hair stylist
26, Waukesha, WI
Candace Smith, attorney
31, Dayton, OH
The “other eleven”:
Spencer Duhm, student
19, Lakeland, FL
James "JT" Thomas, Jr., cattle rancher
24, Samson, AL
Joe Dowdle, real estate salesman
26, Austin, TX
Stephen Fishbach, corporate consultant
29, New York City, NY
Tyson Apostol, pro cyclist
29, Lindon, UT
Brendan Synnott, entrepreneur
30, New York City, NY
Tamara "Taj" Johnson-George, ex-pop star
37, Nashville, TN
Benjamin Wade, university soccer coach
37, Bolivar, MO
Debra "Debbie" Beebe, school principal
46, Auburn, AL
Jerry Sims, army sergeant
49, Rock Hill, SC
Sandy Burgin, bus driver
53, Louisville, KY
Taj, for those curious, sold over six million records and received a Grammy nomination as a member of Sisters With Voices:
Notes on 18.1:
* Probst assures us that the Brazilian Highlands boast temperatures of 120 degrees and rank among the most isolated places on Earth.
* The contestants are divided into teams offscreen, before the show starts.
* The “corporate consultant” is excited to have “a strung-out old lady” on his tribe because it means he won’t be the first voted out.
* There are three rounds of voting in this first episode: two at the beginning of the episode (to expel one person per tribe) and the traditional expulsion at the end. Since nobody knows anybody’s name at episode’s start, most are forced to write (not always flattering) descriptions of the individual they’re voting out.
* Both tribes have to begin the game by carrying all their supplies on four-hour hikes to their respective camps in 110-plus-degree weather.
* Tribe members arriving at camp are faced with a new-to-the-series strategic decision.
* No “exile island” is introduced in the opening episode, but there are hidden immunity idols.
* One of the contestants turns out to be a Mormon.
* The Mormon’s tribe sports a nudist.
* The hinder of one of the models is blurred by the meddling CBS censors.
* The first challenge is for both reward and immunity.
* The cattle rancher is fast.
* CBS has returned to its distrustful policy of not including the final eviction on its “Survivor” screeners.
