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 did. 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 initially going to be on this season. However, he was cut at the last minute 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 in the third episode of both seasons.
 * 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 where two people found an idol more than once.