Survivor: Caramoan

Survivor: Caramoan — Fans vs Favorites is the 26th installment of Survivor. This season will be the second season to feature the Fans vs. Favorites twist, originally introduced to viewers in.

Production
This season repeats the back-to-back filming seen since 2009. The Production Team filmed this season immediately after finished filming. CBS announced on January 11th, the season premiere would last for 2 hours long. However, on February 7th, CBS changed the premiere to only 90 minutes long.

A casting call happened the same way as it did in. Jeff stated that they would like to have Shambo Waters and Matthew Elrod back, but they said they're "done with Survivor" and Lisa Whelchel was considered difficult to be brought back on back-to-back seasons due to being a mother. Troyzan Robertson was orginally going to be on the season but got cut in favor of Malcolm Freberg.

Twists/Changes

 * Fans versus Favorites: Similar to past season, this season will feature one tribe made up of die-hard Fans of the show, while the other tribe will be made up of Favorite returning players from previous seasons.
 * Returning Players: As implied by the theme, ten returning players are going to return to compete against ten new castaways.
 * Hidden Immunity Idol: Like previous seasons, at least one Hidden Immunity Idol is hidden in each tribe's camp.
 * Tribal Council at Challenge Site: Due to Brandon Hantz's rampage at camp, the Favorites decided to forfeit the Immunity Challenge on Day 13. Due to this, a Tribal Council vote was commenced verbally at the challenge site.
 * Tribe Swap: On Day 15, three Fans were swapped into the New Bikal tribe and four Favorites were swapped into the New Gota tribe.
 * Merge-Jury Configuration: For the first time since, the first castaway voted out after the Merge would not be a member of the Jury.

Trivia

 * This is the eighth season to feature returning players.
 * However, this is the first season since  to feature a returning female player.
 * This is the first season since  to feature 20 castaways.
 * 6 of the returning players came from seasons that have the Redemption Island twist (3 each from  and ).
 * This is the fifth season to have a returning player from the season directly before it.
 * Like the original Fans vs. Favorites season, the tribe colors are purple for the Favorites, orange for the Fans and green for the Merged tribe.
 * In addition to Micronesia, the same starting tribe colors were also used in  and.
 * All three returning players from Redemption Island are from the Ometepe tribe.
 * Francesca Hogi is the first returning castaway to be voted out first from their original season.
 * Coincidentally, she was voted out first in this season as well.
 * The font used in the "Caramoan" part of the season logo is HFF Splintered Dream.
 * This season's Tribal Council set is inspired by the Nipa Hut, a local traditional dwelling in the Philippines.
 * This is the second season where a 3-3-3 vote occurred during a Tribal Council, following Redemption Island.
 * Coincidentally, it happened during the third episode of both seasons.
 * This is the first season in which two 3-3-3 votes occurred.
 * Gota won the same challenge twice, although the first win was by default, and the two wins were with different members due to the tribe switch.
 * This is the third season where two tied votes have happened before the Merge, the first two being  and.
 * This is the first season since to have the first eliminated person on the Merged tribe not be a member of the Jury.
 * This is the first season since  where the first person voted out of the Merged tribe isn't a member of the Jury.
 * This is the third season in which multiple Hidden Immunity Idols have been played at the same Tribal Council, the first two being and.
 * This is the first season in which two idols played at the same Tribal Council both negated at least one vote.
 * This is the third consecutive season to feature the Survivor Auction.
 * This is the first season in which more than one person found an idol more than once.
 * This is the first season in which a female player got voted out while in possession of a Hidden Immunity Idol.
 * This is the first season in which the Loved Ones Challenge had 2 Loved Ones instead of 1.
 * This is also the first time that Jeff Probst cried during the Loved Ones Challenge.
 * Both of the tribes' highest ranking women are its oldest women: Dawn Meehan for Bikal and Sherri Biethman for Gota. Both of the tribes' highest ranking men is the third to appear in the opening: Eddie for Gota and Cochran for Bikal
 * Just like the first Fans vs. Favorites, two people were medically evacuated this season.
 * This season holds the record for the latest medical evacuation in the show's history with an evacuation on Day 36.
 * This is the fourth season after Survivor: Micronesia, Survivor: Samoa and Survivor: One World to feature two medical evacuations.
 * This is the only season that the Reunion Show had only members of the Jury appear on stage and no pre-jury vote offs.
 * This is the third season to have a tie for runner-up.
 * However this is the first time the runners-up are from separate tribes.
 * John Cochran becomes the second Sole Survivor to play a "perfect game", receiving no votes against him and all of the Jury Votes.
 * J.T. Thomas was the first.
 * All the people in the Final Tribal Council stayed on their original tribe post tribe switch.