Jeff Probst announced to Entertainment Weekly that the next season of the long-running reality series "Survivor" will be the most thrilling, twist-filled one yet. The next season will be titled "Survivor: Blood vs. Water," and will feature past "Survivor" contestants coming back to play against their loved ones.
The show, which was shot this past spring in the Philippines, will feature "Survivor: One World's" Kat Edorsson and her boyfriend, Hayden Moss, who was the winner of "Big Brother" season 12. The rest of the cast includes "Survivor" season one player Gervase Peterson, who will be competing with his niece, Marissa; "Survivor: One World" contestants Monica Culpepper with her husband Brad, and Colton Cumbie with his fiance Caleb; Tyson Apostol with his girlfriend Rachel; Candice Cody (preivously Candice Woodcock) with her husband John; Laura Moett from "Survivor: Samoa" with her daughter Ciera; and three million dollar winners: Tina Wesson from "The Australian Outback," with her daughter, Katie; Aras Baskauskas from "Panama" with his brother, Vytas and Rupert Boneham, who won a million dollar fan prize given away during the "All-Stars" season. He will be playing with his wife Laura.
There are many twists in store for the former contestants, in addition to the novel concept of having them pitted against their loved ones.
Instead of the game being 39 days long, it will be 39-and-a-half days long, with the couples taking part in a new twist called "Day Zero." On Day Zero, the 10 pairs will be sent to 10 different locations as the sun is setting to survive on their own for the night. The next day, they will meet up with host Jeff Probst and the rest of the cast.
"The whole idea was to try and get them thinking and maybe believing that they would play as a pair," Probst said about Day Zero.
The biggest twist comes on the first full day, when the players and their partners get split up into two different tribes: the yellow Galang tribe for the returning contestants, and the red Tadhana tribe for the new contestants.
"Suddenly your partner becomes your adversary, your competition," Probst said. "And that was the whole premise of 'Blood vs. Water.' How is that going to play out in a game where only one person can win?"
After being split into tribes, another twist comes next: each tribe is forced to vote out someone on their team, despite having only just met everyone. The people who were voted out will be sent to Redemption Island, which is making a comeback after its absence for the previous three seasons. The contestants on Redemption Island will fight to survive and reenter the game later on.
In a confusing turn of events, Probst will then offer each of the partners of the people voted off the option to trade places with them. If that person switches with their loved one, that person will leave their tribe and join the other team.
As for the people on Redemption Island, each person sent there will compete in a three person duel. The person who comes in last place is out of the game for good, and the other two will remain. Yet, the people on the island are also given the chance of their loved one taking their place for the duel if they believe that their counterpart would have a better chance at winning.
"That puts blood and water to the test," Probst explained. "And we're gonna do it at every duel. So the first time early in the game, somebody may say 'It's just too early." But as those duels increase and they get closer to what they think might be a merge, their strategy is going to start to change."
The person who finishes first in the duels on Redemption Island will also get to share a clue about the location of a hidden immunity idol with any person they choose from either tribe.
"There's all these things you can do," Probst continued. "Because for a moment, even though you're on the outest, furthest part of the game, you have a little bit of power."
"Survivor: Blood vs. Water" premieres on CBS on Wednesday, September 18.
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