Returning Players

This article on Survivor Wiki is a stub. which means that we're lacking/missing some information. You can help the wiki by expanding it.

Returning Players
Survivor Gameplay
Description	A twist that former players are brought back to the game for another chance against new players or other returning players.
Appearances	All-Stars Guatemala Micronesia Heroes vs. Villains Redemption Island South Pacific Philippines Caramoan

Returning Players in Survivor offers the opportunity for former contestants who have won or been voted out to return for another shot to become the Sole Survivor.

Origins

The idea for former players to return occurred in Survivor: All-Stars, Executive Producer Mark Burnett wanted to showcase "The best of the best" after the ratings increase of Survivor: Pearl Islands. During pre-production for All-Stars, Burnett wrote down the series' most likable, villainous and memorable players on a legal pad and shortlisted eighteen names within a matter of minutes.

History

All-Star Seasons

Although proving to be a success for fans of the show, some critics argued that the survival aspect had been completely removed in favor of strategy and exuberant challenges. Fans also responded negatively to players who returned that had no plausible reason, and that they were merely reservists (most notably, Amber Brkich who had been a backup to Elisabeth Filarski and Colleen Haskell)

Fans of the show overall enjoyed and accepted the plausibility of "returnees" as long as there was a justification for them to return, something that would be later questioned in Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains with Candice Woodcock.

Versus New Players

It appeared that later on in the series' run that the more popular a contestant was with the audience (regardless of placement) there would be a higher probability in returning for a second shot. During the events of Survivor: Guatemala, two former castaways from Survivor: Palau, Bobby Jon Drinkard and Stephenie LaGrossa joined to tribes of new contestants for a shot at redemption after being members of the infamous Ulong tribe.

With Survivor experimenting with different twists, the Production team opted to have ten well-known players go against "die-hard" fans of the show which would produce Survivor: Micronesia and become one of the series most popular installments. Survivor: Caramoan would later adopt the same format.

During Survivor: Redemption Island and Survivor: South Pacific, returnees were once again brought in as unofficial leaders when Redemption Island had been involved. The reasons differed from previous justifications of former survivors; Rob Mariano and Russell Hantz were brought back to settle their rivalry from Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains, whilst Coach Wade and Ozzy Lusth were brought back to improve on their weak social games.

Survivor: Philippines introduced three previously medevaced contestants with new players already divided into three tribes.

It should be noted that during every season thus far that has featured returning players, at least one has made it to the final two/three in every season.  Thes players include Rob Mariano (twice), Amber Brkich, Stephenie LaGrossa, Amanda Kimmel, Parvati Shallow (twice), Russell Hantz, Sandra Diaz-Twine, Coach Wade, and Michael Skupin.

Reception

Fan reception has evolved from universal acclaim, to mixed, to negative over the series' run.