'All-Star Survivor' cast and tribes already uncovered?

Score one for the Web sleuths, we think. The Survivor spoiling/news sites Survivor News and Survivor Fever have both identified the 18 probable contestants in CBS's All-Star Survivor, which is currently filming in Panama. In addition, Survivor News claims to have the tribal breakdowns being used on the show.


First things first. Here are the 18 contestants, broken down by their original show:

•Survivor: Pulau Tiga (4): Richard Hatch (winner), Rudy Boesch (3rd), Sue Hawk (4th), Jenna Lewis (8th).

•Survivor: The Australian Outback (5): Tina Wesson (winner), Colby Donaldson (2nd), Amber Brkich (6th), Jerri Manthey (8th), Alicia Calaway (9th).

•Survivor: Africa (3): Ethan Zohn (winner), Lex van den Berghe (3rd), Tom Buchanan (4th).


•Survivor: Marquesas (2): Kathy Vavrick-O'Brien (3rd), Rob Mariano (10th).

•Survivor: Thailand (1): Shii-Ann Huang (10th).

•Survivor: The Amazon (2): Jenna Morasca (winner), Rob Cesternino (3rd).

•Survivor: Pearl Islands (1): Rupert Boneham (unknown).

Survivor Fever reports that Ken Stafford from Survivor: Thailand and possibly Sandra Dias-Twine from Survivor: Pearl Islands are also on hand as alternates. However, while Tina Wesson was originally an alternate when she was added to Survivor, we think the odds are against any of these battle-tested castaways pulling out at the last minute, especially after the lobbying that took place for these slots.


Survivor News, as noted earlier, also claims to have the tribal breakdown. One of the twists on this show will be the use of 3 tribes of 6 -- 18 players -- instead of the usual 2 tribes of 8 -- 16 players. Here is the reported breakdown:

•Tribe 1: Rudy, Ethan, Rupert, Jenna L., Tina, Jerri.

•Tribe 2: Richard, Colby, Lex, Kathy, Shii-Ann, Jenna M.

•Tribe 3: Tom, Rob M., Rob C., Sue, Alicia, Amber.

As usual with "spoilers," we have no idea whether this is correct. However, the fact that both "Snewser" (the head of Survivor News) and "Zeitgeist" (the head of Survivor Fever) are reporting the same information for the players makes us reasonably comfortable speculating about the breakdowns above.

First, we note that Survivor executive producer Mark Burnett has reunited three of the four most dominant alliances in the show's history: 3/4ths of the Tagi 4 (Richard, Rudy, Sue -- missing just Kelly Wigglesworth); 4/5ths of the Ogakors (Tina, Colby, Amber, Jerri -- missing just "Kan't-Kook-Keith" Famie); and all of the Boran Male Alliance (Ethan, Lex and Tom). However, the fourth such alliance, from the "Chewing Gum" tribe led by winner/porno star Brian Heidik during Survivor: Thailand, has been completely omitted. Looks like we can confirm the reports that CBS didn't know anything about Brian's past when the show was filmed.

Based on the tribe alignments, it appears that Mark Burnett has tried to minimize the "past show aliiances" factor. The only members of the same alliance on a tribe together are Jerri and Tina -- and they weren't exactly on good terms at the end of the show, after Tina and Colby led a move to vote Jerri out because of all the trouble she caused (but not before Jerri nagged the tribe into foolishly building its shelter on a river flood plain during the rainy season, with predictable results).

In all honesty, we find ourselves pleasantly surprised by the final cast and by the tribe alignments (if accurate). The only three other people that we really would have enjoyed seeing on the show that probably weren't asked were two 9th-place finishers and a 10th place finisher: Kelly Goldsmith from Africa, John Carroll from Marquesas, and Jeff Varner from Australia, while the only person selected that we really didn't want to see again was The Amazon winner Jenna Morasca, who seems likely to be the first boot from her tribe. We admit to being very interested in whether 78-year-old Rudy will have to answer "I dunno" in any challenges -- and whether Shii-Ann will get another chance to use her "horns" -- and whether Rob Mariano will find Amber's natural cleavage as fascinating as he found Sarah Jones's silicone-enhanced cleavage.

Kudos to Mark Burnett for the selections -- and double kudos to Snewser and Zeitgeist for leading the disclosure of the selections.