A Wild New 'Survivor'

TV Guide's Mark Schwed On 'Survivor: Pearl Islands'

(CBS)  Get ready, Survivor fans, because the seventh installment of the popular reality series is about to get under way.

This time, the 16 castaways fight it out for the $1 million prize off the coast of Panama, in the picturesque Pearl Islands.

TV Guide's Mark Schwed was invited by the show's producers to observe the first few days of shooting and interview all the Survivor contestants in Miami. He discussed what he saw on Survivor: Pearl Islands from The Early Show's Los Angeles bureau.

Schwed says the location for the latest Survivor is really lush with vegetation and gorgeous, as well as boiling hot.

As usual on Survivor, he says, the challenging part of participating on the show was not the spiders, snakes or sharks, but the sun. It causes most of the tribes' problems. And after one day, members of both tribes were covered in mosquito bites.

The big difference with the new show, according to Schwed, is that each tribe has its own island.

The contestants were divided into two "equal" tribes, composed of four men and four woman on each team. The two teams are called Drake and Morgan — both pirates who frequented the Pearl Islands.

The standouts from the show, according to Schwed, are Rupert Boneham, a mentor for troubled teens; Jon Dalton, an art consultant; and Nicole Delma, the masseuse who actually massages her fellow contestants.

Schwed says to expect a lot of nudity and a little bloodshed. And that's just in the first episode.