'Survivor 8' to Feature Past 'Survivor' All-Stars

Yesterday, CBS announced their new Fall lineup. Two things were of interest to reality TV fans. First, Survivor: Panama is the only reality TV show on the schedule (though Star Search may return for a limited run in place of whatever other shows end up being canceled). But more importantly, CBS also announced that Survivor 8 would be an all-star edition, by popular demand.

Rich, Rudy, Susan, Tina, and Ethan - all people who only need their first names given for Survivor fans - joined Mark Burnett on-stage as he made the announcement. All but Susan had been there for the live Survivor: The Amazon finale on Sunday. However, it is unclear at this time if any or all of them will actually be on the all-star edition.

The Associated Press reported that the show will be "bringing back past players like Richard Hatch, Rudy Boesch, Tina Wesson, Ethan Zohn and Jerri Manthey." But whether that's players like them or those actual players is unclear. Zap2it.com said, "Burnett did give a final list of returning contestants, but said that the stakes would be raised for the all-star event." However, the context of the statement looks like it was a typo and that they really meant Burnett did not give a final list (if he had given one, it seems logical that they would have provided it in the article).

The Chairman of CBS has promised a prize of two million dollars, certainly enough to entice many of the former players back out for 39 more days.

Most fans seem to have assumed in past discussions that whenever an all-star edition would eventually come around, former winners like Rich, Tina, and Ethan would not be included. However, by bringing them on-stage, Burnett seems to have indicated that would not be the case. It will be interesting to see if other contestants will immediately band together to eliminate such winners as being potentially too dangerous.

Because of this announcement, and the parallel announcement that casting for Survivor: Panama is already complete, fans who have been trying to get on the show can probably forget about applying for a while, despite information on applying that was mentioned in the Survivor: The Amazon reunion after the finale.

As of now, this is all the information we have on the all-star edition. We will update readers when we find out more.

David Bloomberg is the Editor of RealityNewsOnline and can be reached at rno@pobox.com.

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