Returning Players

Returning Players
Survivor Gameplay
Description	Former castaways compete for another shot at winning the title of Sole Survivor.
Appearances	All-Stars Guatemala Micronesia Heroes vs. Villains Redemption Island South Pacific Philippines Caramoan Blood vs. Water Cambodia Game Changers Edge of Extinction Winners at War

Returning Player seasons offer the opportunity to former contestants to play the game of Survivor again.

Origins

The idea of former players returning originally 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 minutes.

All-Stars

"All-Stars" seasons feature casts comprised entirely of returning players. The eponymous season, All-Stars, saw 18 returnees divided into three competing tribes.

The All-Stars twist was revived for the ten-year anniversary season, Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains. This season divided the returnees based on their heroic or villainous reputations.

Survivor: Cambodia featured a "Second Chance" theme, consisting of contestants who played only once and lost; and its cast was entirely chosen by viewers through an online poll.

Survivor: Game Changers featured former contestants who contributed to the evolution of Survivor strategy and gameplay.

Survivor: Winners at War, the twenty-year anniversary season, consisted of former Sole Survivors returning to try and win for their second (or third) time.

Fans vs. Favorites

Although initially intending to produce a second all-stars season, Burnett pushed for Survivor to experiment with different twists in their 16th season. The result was the "Fans vs. Favorites" twist that saw a tribe of ten returning players pitted against a tribe of ten "superfans". Survivor: Micronesia and Survivor: Caramoan both utilized this format.

One Returnee per Tribe

This format features two to three former castaways, each being assigned to a tribe of new players. Survivor: Guatemala, Survivor: Redemption Island, Survivor: South Pacific, and Survivor: Philippines followed this format.

Survivor: Edge of Extinction expanded on this format, bringing back four former castaways and assigning two to each tribe of new players.

Blood vs. Water

Another type of "Returnees vs. New Players" format is the couples format, where returnees would compete against people they personally know. It was first used in Survivor: Blood vs. Water, where ten returning castaways would compete against their loved ones, similar to the "Fans vs. Favorites" format. However, each castaway would compete individually, so a castaway would still be in the game even after their partner was voted out. The twist would play its part when a castaway could opt to replace their partner on Redemption Island before a duel took place, thus allowing their partner to take their place on their tribe. While the Blood vs. Water twist would return in Survivor: San Juan del Sur, it was done with all new players and no Redemption Island.

Returning Players by Season

Season	Returned from Season	Season	Returned from Season
			None
	None		Most recent season

Trivia

•  Of the 103 returnees: 73 have competed twice, 23 have competed three times, 6 have competed four times, and 1 has competed five times.
• Jenna Morasca, Michael Skupin, Colton Cumbie, and Michele Fitzgerald are the only returning players to never be voted out.
  • Out of these four, Michele is the only one to have reached the Final Tribal Council every time she competed.
  • Amanda Kimmel, Russell Hantz, and Sandra Diaz-Twine each played their first two seasons without being voted out, but were each voted out in their third season.
• Amber Mariano and Ethan Zohn currently hold the record for the longest period between appearances on Survivor, with 32 seasons.
  • In addition, Amber holds the record for the longest period between their original and most recent appearance, with 38 seasons.

Seasons and Twists

• Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains currently has the most castaways return in future seasons, with ten.
• Survivor: The Australian Outback has the most first-time castaways return in future seasons, with eight.
  • The Australian Outback has also introduced the highest number of eventual three-time players, with five.
• Contestants from The Australian Outback and contestants from Heroes vs. Villains have returned a combined thirteen times for subsequent seasons, the most among contestants from other seasons.
• Three seasons have their final four return in future seasons: Survivor: Borneo, Survivor: Panama, and Survivor: Cagayan.
• All four returning players from Survivor: Tocantins (J.T., Stephen, Coach, and Tyson) have reached the Final Tribal Council on one of their Survivor appearances.
• Throughout his Survivor career, Ozzy Lusth is the only person to compete in all four different types of seasons: an all-new players season, a season consisting of half new players and half returnees, a one or two returnee per tribe season, and an all-returnees season. Ozzy has also been to both Exile Island and Redemption Island.
  • Aras Baskauskas and Candice Cody are the other two contestants who have been to both islands.
  • Of the three, Ozzy is the only person to return from Redemption Island (doing it twice in Survivor: South Pacific).
  • Tyson Apostol is the only castaway to have played in seasons featuring Exile Island, Redemption Island, and the Edge of Extinction, but has only spent time on the Edge.
• Stephenie LaGrossa is the only female contestant to be a returnee in a season with one returnee per tribe.
• Every season prior to Survivor: Edge of Extinction has produced at least one returning player.
  • However, no players who debuted in Survivor: Caramoan have returned. The only returnees from this season, Andrea Boehlke and Malcolm Freberg, were on it as returnees themselves.
• Prior to Survivor: Philippines, no contestant to place worse than 10th on their first season had been invited to return. Philippines broke this pattern by having Michael Skupin (11th) from The Australian Outback and Russell Swan (14th) from Samoa compete again.
  • Russell was the first pre-merge returnee who failed to reach the merge twice. He was followed by Francesca Hogi, Colton Cumbie, and Caleb Reynolds.
  • Though he did reach the merge once, Jeff Varner competed thrice and missed a spot on the jury in all three of his seasons.
• In all three seasons that had a tribe of returning players against a tribe of new players:
  • A Tribe Switch occurred, creating tribes with both new and returning players.
  • Post-switch, the tribe originally consisting of new players won every Immunity Challenge.
  • The Sole Survivor and at least one runner-up were returning players, and no new players received votes from the jury.
• In every all-returnee season with at least one previous winner, a winner was the fifth person eliminated: Richard Hatch in Survivor: All-Stars, Tom Westman in Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains, J.T. Thomas in Survivor: Game Changers, and Sandra Diaz-Twine in Survivor: Winners at War
• Among the eight seasons that featured a mix of new and returning players, Survivor: Edge of Extinction is the first and only season where all the returning players were voted out before the Final Tribal Council.
  • Due to the Edge of Extinction twist that allowed players to stay in the game after being voted out, all eight mixed seasons have featured at least one returning player still in contention in the season's finale episode.
• Andrea Boehlke has received more votes over her Survivor career than any other returning player, with 36 total votes.
• Cirie Fields, Aubry Bracco, Rob Mariano, and Parvati Shallow are the only contestants to make it to the finale episode of a season on three separate occasions. It should be noted, though, that on Survivor: Panama the finale episode started with Cirie losing a fire-making challenge, and being eliminated from the game; while on the finale episode of Survivor: Edge of Extinction and the finale episode of Survivor: Winners at War, Aubry (Edge of Extinction), and Rob and Parvati (Winners at War) were on the Edge of Extinction and, each having lost their respective re-entry duels, failed to return to the game.
• Three of the four all-returnee seasons that had Tribe Switches (Survivor: All-Stars, Survivor: Cambodia, Survivor: Game Changers) have all featured one tribe that did not have at least one player stay on it from the beginning of the game until the merge, with all the original members switching to another tribe at some point or being eliminated pre-merge. The tribes in question are Mogo Mogo, Ta Keo, and Nuku.