Survivor makes its return on September 27th at 8PM EST on CBS for its 35th season with an all-new cast of 18 players, divided into 3 tribes: Heroes v. Healers v. Hustlers.

Meet the cast:





Levu Tribe (Heroes)





Alan Ball (Levu Tribe, Heroes)

Age: 31
Hometown: Detroit, MI
Current Residence: Houston, TX
Occupation: NFL Player







Ben Driebergen (Levu Tribe, Heroes)

Age: 34
Hometown: Boise, ID
Current Residence: Boise, ID
Occupation: Marine







John "JP" Hilsabeck (Levu Tribe, Heroes)

Age: 28
Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
Current Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Occupation: Firefighter







Chrissy Hofbeck (Levu Tribe, Heroes)

Age: 46
Hometown: Bernardsville, NJ
Current Residence: Lebanon Township, NJ
Occupation: Actuary







Ashley Nolan (Levu Tribe, Heroes)

Age: 26
Hometown: Satellite Beach, FL
Current Residence: Satellite Beach, FL
Occupation: Lifeguard







Katrina Radke (Levu Tribe, Heroes)

Age: 46
Hometown: Morris, MN
Current Residence: Excelsior, MN
Occupation: Olympian





Soko Tribe (Healers)





Jessica Johnston (Soko Tribe, Healers)

Age: 29
Hometown: Cape Girardeau, MO
Current Residence: Louisville, KY
Occupation: Nurse Practitioner







Roark Luskin (Soko Tribe, Healers)

Age: 27
Hometown: Palo Alto, CA
Current Residence: Santa Monica, CA
Occupation: Social Worker







Cole Medders (Soko Tribe, Healers)

Age: 24
Hometown: Little Rock, AR
Current Residence: Little Rock, AR
Occupation: Wilderness Therapy Guide







Joe Mena (Soko Tribe, Healers)

Age: 34
Hometown: Bronx, NY
Current Residence: Tolland, CT
Occupation: Probation Officer







Desiree "Desi" Williams (Soko Tribe, Healers)

Age: 27
Hometown: Peachtree City, GA
Current Residence: Newport News, VA
Occupation: Physical Therapist







Mike Zahalsky (Soko Tribe, Healers)

Age: 43
Hometown: Parkland, FL
Current Residence: Parkland, FL
Occupation: Urologist





Yawa Tribe (Hustlers)





Patrick Bolton (Yawa Tribe, Hustlers)

Age: 24
Hometown: Lanett, AL
Current Residence: Auburn, AL
Occupation: Small Business Owner







Alexandrea "Ali" Elliott (Yawa Tribe, Hustlers)

Age: 24
Hometown: Eastvale, CA
Current Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Occupation: Celebrity Assistant







Simone Nguyen (Yawa Tribe, Hustlers)

Age: 25
Hometown: Worcester, MA
Current Residence: New York City, NY
Occupation: Diversity Advocate







Devon Pinto (Yawa Tribe, Hustlers)

Age: 23
Hometown: Carlsbad, CA
Current Residence: Solana Beach, CA
Occupation: Surf Instructor







Lauren Rimmer (Yawa Tribe, Hustlers)

Age: 35
Hometown: Beaufort, NC
Current Residence: Beaufort, NC
Occupation: Fisherman







Ryan Ulrich (Yawa Tribe, Hustlers)

Age: 23
Hometown: North Arlington, NJ
Current Residence: North Arlington, NJ
Occupation: Bellhop



Probst cast assessment:



Note: This season goes back to the old tie-breaker format, that was present prior to Survivor: Game Changers where re-votes still occur in case of a dead-locked tie before going to open deliberation and then rocks.

Didn't that Mike guy used to be a pitchman for Subway?

no hotties?!?

Hmmm this is the least informed I've been prior to a season and will be traveling a ton and watching late most often.

I was going to say he's a dead ringer for Mnuchin

I haven't watched any videos yet. Here are my thoughts based on photos alone:

First, I refute the claim of no hotties. NFL player, Firefighter, and Probst are all hotties. That Cole Medders fellow makes me feel like a dirty old woman. And I'm so mesmerized by the indentations below Devon Pinto's hips, I barely noticed anything else about him--and ditto on the dirty old woman thing.

Futhermore, if I swung the other way, surely at minimum the nurseP and the Celebrity Assitant qualify as hotties. And that's just being extremely discerning. I find it hard to believe a few of those other women aren't hottie material as well.

Don't the Heroes have a tremendous advantage in the early challenges given both of the other teams are spotting them a nerd in their lineup of men? Actuary going to have to be pretty insufficient at puzzles to make up for the likely physical dominance of the hero men.

That being said, I question the killer instinct of these heroes just based on their photos. Marine and the Olympian skull lady look like they might have the required deviousness, but also look like they may lack the social acumen.

I feel like Wilderness therapy guide and probation officer might be a bit of a stretch for the "Healers" category, but I understand the quandary given some of the other occupations of the rest of the cast.

Do probation officers manage to hold onto enough appreciation for humanity to really be good at a social game like Survivor? Will he and the Social Worker make an alliance? Urologist better hope there is a puzzle for him to rock in that first challenge if he wants to hang around.


Also a bit of a stretch on this Hustler category. Would it have been too much of a reach to recruit a playboy bunny for this tribe in order to appease hairloss@19? Does the fisherman hustle those fish out of the ocean?

Red seems like he could be a schemer. What the hell is a diversity advocate? Oy, a surf instructor--definitely the designated puzzle man, right? Bellhop looks like total Survivor nerd package. I can't wait to meet this guy.

Hustlers gotta be the pits for challenges no?

Clovis, can you clue us in on what a diversity advocate does? Is the schooling for that lawyerly or more like a media type thing?

As you sort of allude to later in your post, nearly every pre-merge immunity challenge nowadays has some sort of puzzle solving aspect or some portion where physical strength and/or dexterity are not an advantage. And usually that "puzzle" portion takes long enough or is positioned within the overall challenge in such as way as to guarantee every team has a shot to win the overall challenge.

I'm only going off job titles but hustlers? I was expecting stock brokers, poker players, magicians etc. Fisherman? Bellhop?

Chrissy is a bona fide MILF too and the PT is hottie material as well.

ITT I learned that Actuaries are heroes.

There's an eight-minute preview video on Youtube but after three minutes of hearing Probst talk about heroes and healers I had to turn it off.

Desi is sexy

Theme is garbage but hopefully should still be a good season after the pretty woeful game changers. Aus survivor is pretty elite ATM though.

For Survivor contestants, this is generally a good thing imo

Looooool, bravo Soncy

subscribed

I hope Simone doesnt go out right away. Serious train wreck potential

It's really disappointing that two of the Hustlers knew each other from college.

Ali and Patrick

when that first "hero" said he was in the marines, and jeff called him a hero for being in the marines... if i was there i would have said "more like villain"

Haven't watched all the vids yet, but I feel like from the pics the Hustlers will be at a huge disadvantage in physical challenges. Hope they have some puzzle masters

Hustlers are a lock to be losing lots of challenges

In

JP

Can you post this in the SS thread so I don't forget about it?

Sorry got it in at 8:01