Survivor: Micronesia - Fans vs. Favorites

So the other day I composed a list of the top twenty castaways I would like to see return for the upcoming installment of Survivor. I then got the new Entertainment Weekly (#973), which had a two-page spread detailing the final cast. What I hadn't realized when I wrote the list, however, was that they seemed to only be choosing people from seasons 9-15 of Survivor, just as All-Stars (season 8) was cast from seasons 1-7. So I wasted eleven of the twenty spots on my Top 20 list on people who weren't even being considered. Here now is my list again, with the names of the people who weren't chosen darkened out, and the people who weren't even eligible crossed out. For the sake of expediency, I've removed my original commentary.

20. Gary Hogeboom, Survivor Guatemala
19. Clarence Black, Survivor Africa
18. Rupert Boneham, Survivor Pearl Islands/All-Stars
17. Terry Deitz, Survivor Panama
16. Elisabeth Filarski, Survivor Australia
15. Ted Rogers, Jr., Survivor Thailand
14. Ashley Massaro, Survivor China
13. James Clement, Survivor China
12. Yau-Man Chan, Survivor Fiji
11. Rob Cesternino, Survivor Amazon/All-Stars
10. Jenna Lewis, Survivor Borneo/All-Stars
9. Robb Zbacnik, Survivor Thailand
8. Shane Powers, Survivor Panama
7. Lex van den Berghe, Survivor Africa/All-Stars
6. Parvati Shallow, Survivor Cook Islands
5. Hunter Ellis, Survivor Marquesas
4. Richard Hatch, Survivor Borneo/All-Stars
3. Judd Sergeant, Survivor Guatemala
2. Courtney Yates, Survivor China
1. Colleen Haskell, Survivor Borneo

So, James, Yau-Man, and Parvati. That's not too shabby. I love watching all three of them. But no Judd or Courtney? That's two omissions that really hurt. Makes me wish this was another straight-up All-Stars.

Here, by the way, is the list of names I had also considered, but left off the list:

- Alicia Calaway, Survivor Australia/All-Stars
- Jerri Manthey, Survivor Australia/All-Stars
- Colby Donaldson, Survivor Australia/All-Stars
- Tom Buchanan, Survivor Africa/All-Stars
- Christy Smith, Survivor Amazon
- Heidi Strobel, Survivor Amazon
- Jessa Morasca, Survivor Amazon/All-Stars
- Danni Boatwright, Survivor Guatemala
- Aras Baskauskas, Survivor Panama
- Sekou Bunch, Survivor Cook Islands
- Yul Kwon, Survivor Cook Islands
- Amanda Kimmel, Survivor China

Amanda is all right. Her face always reminded me disturbingly of Parvati, so it will be incredible to have them both competing together. Amanda is more of a strategist though, so I would expect her to last longer (unless they follow tradition and eliminate the established strategists first).

And here's the rest of the people who will be in Micronesia:

- Cirie Fields, Survivor Panama -- I kinda liked her. She started out the game incapable of surviving outdoors, regretting her decision to compete in the show, and marked for elimination by the rest of her tribe. But circumstances spared her, and she grew to become a pretty good player. She made it to 4th place, eliminated only after losing a fire challenge when there was a tied vote. She was also in my list peripherally as the OR nurse that Shane showed his balls to.
- Jonathan Penner, Survivor Cook Islands -- I completely forgot about this guy, but I'm actually very happy to see that he's on the show. Everyone in Cook Islands hated him, but he was great to watch.
- Ozzy Lusth, Survivor Cook Islands -- A good competitor who had the strength and agility of some kinda monkey. Will be interesting to have back, I suppose.
- Eliza Orlins, Survivor Vanuatu -- Who the fuck is this?
- Ami Cusack, Survivor Vanuatu -- Let me just clarify that Survivor Vanuatu was quite possibly the worst season ever of Survivor, and my absolute least favorite. So why are there two people from it? I can't imagine anyone in the tribe of fans actually knew these bitches by name.
- Jonny Fairplay, Survivor Pearl Islands -- This is the dumbest Survivor to ever play the game. He bragged to an irritating degree, and was actually a terrible strategist and a huge pain in the ass. He became notorious when he had his visiting friend tell him that his grandmother had died, in order to win sympathy from the other castaways (the grandmother, in reality, was fine). But what never gets mentioned is the fact that the dead grandmother trick only helped him win a meaningless reward (his friend got to stay longer-- wow!). It didn't do shit to help him with the actual game. He did manage to swear on his grandmother's grave a couple times before being voted off, so I guess there is that. The only pleasure I would get from watching this guy is if maybe he gets voted off in the first episode or something.

By the way, I just noticed that Jonny Fairplay is from season 7. So maybe I was wrong about that whole first eight seasons cutoff. Whatever.

Cheers,
Diego