The Twist And Turns Of "Survivor: Fiji"
The first day of the 14th season of "Survivor" is here. The show's host, Jeff Probst, stopped by The Early Show to give a preview of the upcoming season.
Nineteen strangers that represent an extreme cross-section of America – from a former homeless street performer to a Harvard-educated lawyer – are set to battle it out to the end. They have been given absolutely no information about the challenge that awaits them in Fiji. The fear of the unknown is so strong that one "Survivor" quit just moments before being set adrift miles from shore.
"We did have 20 and literally the night before, several hours before we put them in the boat, one woman bless her heart started having a panic attack," Probst told Julie Chen. "This had been something she had before in her life but thought they were under control but she just sort of spun out of control and couldn't do it. Our doctors checked her out. We weren't going to talk her into it, and it was something she just couldn't do."
Probst said this year's cast is unique because it is a group of true individuals.
"There are more distinct personalities than I think we had last season and you get to know them fairly quickly," he said. "There's this guy Rocky, who looks like Sylvester Stallone – you know, if you sucked all the air out of Stallone, you would have this miniature version."
And then there's Yau-Man. "This guy actually grew up on the beaches in Borneo where we shot the very first season – he is very comfortable on the beach and comfortable around the coconut," Probst said. "Extremely likeable – he's kind of like a Rudy to me. I instantly took to him and thought, 'I hope you do well in this show.' So we have an interesting group of people."
And, after last year's experiment with dividing the cast into tribes based on race, what is the big "Survivor" twist for this season?
To see photos of the entire cast, and much more, click here.
"This time we wanted to create a class system – a rich and a poor; a have and a have-not, whatever you want to call it," Probst said. "So we took all 19, put them on the boat, sent them to the beach. I come over in a float plane, drop a crate. In the crate there are blue prints to build this massive shelter, and there's a map to find lumber and tools. So we give them everything they need to build a gigantic place. Then we divide into two groups. The winning group gets to live there. The losing grip gets a pot, a machete and a cave."
Of course, none of the contestants knew that when they were building the shelter.
"It's long enough into the run on "Survivor," that I'm sure some are going, 'this is too good to be true, something bad is going to happen'" Probst said. "When they found out, you can see the looks on their faces was on of 'we gotta win, because if we don't win we are going to a cave.'"
Probst also said that by the end of "Survivor: Fiji," one of the cast has to make a huge life decision.
"There's a lot of weird things that happen and you get towards the end and there's a decision that personifies 'Survivor' – is it a game or is it life?" he said. "It plays out in a big way. All the producers on the beach are going 'here's what I would do, this is what I would do."
"Survivor: Fiji" premieres Thursday at 8:00p.m. on CBS.