Survivor 30: Worlds Apart

4 Q's with Jeff Probst:

Each week Jeff Probst will answer a few questions about the latest episode of Survivor: Worlds Apart.

EW: Okay, let’s talk about this first reward challenge and Kelly’s injury. Let’s break it up into a few different parts. First question: When you did any of the rehearsals with the Dream Team where they go through and compete several times in the challenge to test it out, was anyone just dropping the platform down like Dan and Will were? Did you anticipate any safety issues before the challenge began?
JEFF PROBST: Great question, and the answer is no. All of the Dream Teamers let the platform down smoothly and in a fairly calm manner. But Dream Teamers are not playing for a million dollars. And no matter how much we encourage them to really push it, there are some things you just can’t fake, like pretending that you really are playing for a million dollars!! So while rehearsals are extremely helpful, we are still often surprised when we run the challenge with the actual contestants.

Take us through the medical check-up on Kelly after she got hurt. Concussion protocol is a big thing in sports these days before letting people go back in to compete. Was she checked for any sort of head trauma besides the actual surface gash on her face? And how worried were you when you saw blood coming out through her buff?
Oh, I was definitely worried when I saw the blood. The odd thing was Kelly was so calm throughout the entire event. She answered every question our doctor asked her thoroughly and in a very relaxed manner. She kept reminding us that “I work in law enforcement; I deal with trauma all the time. This is not a big deal.” Nonetheless, our doctors gave her a very thorough examination, not only addressing the cut and the fact that it would need stitches as soon as the challenge was over, but we also gave her some time just to make sure she was really okay. The most unusual part of the challenge was that everyone had to remain blindfolded because if we let them take off their blindfolds they would be able to look out into the field and see where their remaining objects were and we would have to start over. So I felt really uncomfortable keeping everybody “in the dark” so to speak and yet it seemed to be the only fair and appropriate response.

When you started the challenge back up again, did you instruct the people working the platforms to stop letting go of the rope, and to let it down gently instead from there on out?
Oh yes, and to be clear I had been shouting it to them throughout the challenge. But in the chaos of playing Survivor it is sometimes hard to hear the ever droning host even on the rare occasions when he saying something helpful!

Let’s move on to the big tribe switcheroo. Obviously a huge physical disparity in the tribes, but when you mapped out the split in terms of how the people would mix with each other, I’m guessing you had to be pretty thrilled in the sense that each camp featured both alliance outsiders and swing votes. Give me your breakdown of the new tribes when you first saw them.
Here’s my honest feeling after any tribe switch…. I look at the two tribes and I announce who is on which tribe and I move forward. I honestly don’t think very much about it. I have learned over the years that a tribe switch should always be random and you can never predict what the divisions will be or what kind of success they will have or stories it will produce, regardless of what it looks like on paper.

I thought Jenn had a pretty good quote when she said “Why would they let us know they know that much about Survivor?” about Max and Shirin. I saw John Cochran do the same thing his first time out by not hiding how much he knew about the game. Are superfans working at a disadvantage when they constantly blab about what superfans they are? I would never disclose my Survivor nerdom if I were playing this game.
I think it really depends on the person. I would not be drawn to—or put off by— somebody simply because they were a Survivor fan. To me it’s more about what are they like day to day. Do they have any self-awareness about how they are coming off at any given moment? Being able to take an educated guess at what might happen next because you’ve studied the game is certainly a bit of an advantage, but if that’s all it took to win, then all of our winners would be massive superfans…and that’s not been the case.

Quick—and without looking it up—now that the White Collar, Blue Collar, and No Collar tribe designations are gone, can you name the official name of the now-disbanded White Collar tribe, because I sure as hell can’t? I didn’t even know the other tribe names until this last episode.
Ha ha—that’s funny. I can remember Nargarote (No Collar) and Escameca (Blue Collar), but I am drawing a blank on the White Collar tribe. Point made.

Okay, a nice double shot of episodes this week. What’s on tap next, sir?
One castaway is struggling big time to fit in with their tribe.

4 Q's with Jeff Probst:

Each week Jeff Probst will answer a few questions about the latest episode of Survivor: Worlds Apart.

EW: There’s no doubt that any difference can really stand out in Survivor and Nina repeatedly referenced her hearing disability as a reason why her tribe would not accept her. However, her tribe countered that she was the one focused so much on that as opposed to them, and we saw this play out at Tribal Council. You were out there and got a good feel for them at the two Tribals. Were they ostracizing her because of that or was she making too much of her own lack of hearing?
JEFF PROBST: This brings up two key points that any Survivor player must master if they have any chance to win: #1. You Must Be Self-Aware. You have to be have some sense of how the world sees you, how you come across to others. If you don’t possess #1 then you can’t get to #2 and #2 is the one that gets you voted out. #2. On The Island, Perception Is Reality. Period. So now let’s take the case of Nina, who I think is a really devoted mom and wife and probably has a beautiful life–off the island. But what I witnessed during casting and on the show is that Nina is not aware of how she comes across to others. Lack of self-awareness. Nina does complain a lot. You can make the argument that “you’d complain too if this happened to you” and that’s a fair statement. But on Survivor that complaining is read by others as being a pain in the ass. And worse, she placed her need to complain on the shoulders of her tribemates for not doing a better job of dealing with her hearing issues.

From what I saw of the tribe they did try to accommodate Nina initially…but there was a point where they started to see her as more of a victim. And whether or not that is true, is unfortunately irrelevant. It’s point #2—On The Island, Perception Is Reality. Once they saw her that way, her game was over. Personally, I felt for Nina because I think she really wanted to fit in and be a part of the tribe and I think we saw how tough that is for her to do. And it did make me ask myself—given the same challenge—”How would I do?” It’s very easy to critique from the sidelines and say, “Oh, just deal with it.” It’s another to be the one actually having to deal with it. I applaud Nina for coming on the show and giving it a shot.

I love your big epic challenges, but I also like it sometimes when you just keep it simple, and tonight’s contest was a perfect example as teams had to race back with giant buckets of water—however, with holes in the bucket that needed to be plugged along the way, making teamwork a key component. Tell me your thoughts on these sorts of challenges as well as what you were thinking when you saw No Collar sending Nina away, thereby leaving more holes completely unplugged?
I love these types of challenges where there is a mixture of physical with strategy under the umbrella of teamwork. Okay, my truth about what I think happened with Nina. I think that as a group, the No Collars are pretty caring humans. I also think they’re pretty bright. When you look at that challenge, so much of the communication is happening without players looking at each other. You’re plugging holes, stepping over obstacles, standing under gushing water—you really have to scream and be able to hear each other scream in order to be effective. Again, this is just my personal opinion and nothing more—but I think they felt she was going to be a liability because of her hearing—but they couldn’t say that for fear of being seen as discriminatory. So they blamed it on vague answers that really made no sense. I felt for both sides. It’s a tough call. There is a million dollar check for ONE winner. It forces you to make decisions that sometimes you aren’t proud of—and that’s what I think happened in this case.

I don’t think you have ever had a season where varying definitions of work ethic have not created some major strife between contestants, and we saw some blow-ups on the Blue Collar tribe this week between Mike and Rodney and Mike and Lindsey. Did it surprise you to see this happen on the tribe defined by their physical hard-working life-style, or is that exactly what you expected to happen here? Plus, who really is to blame for those fights?
My initial reaction was surprise—I didn’t expect to see such emotion in every aspect of their game. But then I started thinking of our reality crews that shoot the tribes on their beaches. Those people are definitely “No Collars”: They live a life on their own terms for sure—BUT…when it comes to working that beach, they are 100% blue collar. They bust their ASS every day to get the shots and sounds we need to tell the stories of our contestants. It’s humbling how dedicated they are. And when I think about them after work is over, it’s the same. Whether they are drinking beer or playing darts—they are doing it with the same vigor that they have on the beach. They laugh so loud they wake up the rest of the crew. And if an argument breaks out over which Football/Rugby team is better—it can get heated and even more people are awakened! In other words, they do everything they do with total investment. That was really enlightening for me to make that connection. Blue Collars don’t just work hard, they do everything with intensity. I’m not the first to say it, but without blue collars, ‘merica doesn’t exist. They are the back bone of everything. As to who is to blame for the arguments— who knows. For this I say refer back to question #1.

Bonus question! Just curious: Would you stand there and watch two howler monkeys have sex and then offer a detailed play-by-play account for your friends?
Uh, no. I might watch them— that could be fascinating for a minute. But no, I’m not that interested in then sharing every detail with the tribe. I love that Shirin does those kinds of things. I have NO idea if she is 100% authentic or just a really crafty player who is “playing” a bit of a role. Doesn’t matter, so long as she…is self-aware and knows that perception is reality! Is this getting through yet?!

No Collar is on the ropes and it looks like we have some more drama at Blue Collar coming up. What can you tease for next week’s episode?
I can’t tease it hard enough—next week is awesome. Dare I say the best ep of the season? So much good stuff including a Survivor/medical moment. AND…next week we are giving you TWO EPISODES! Two! Back to back! And in the second episode we have more amazing Survivor moments including a Survivor/wildlife moment. I’m really not hyping it—it’s a great two-hour block.

Yep, they are a bunch of idiots. I would have kept Nina over Will, he has been hurting in every challenge. Worker guy on Blue Tribe must not have watched before, if someone doesn't want to work, who cares, if you bust you but all day and make it tot he end, you will be rewarded over the lazy folks. I think the Boston guy will be out soon, yelling at the only people in the tribe who like you, not too smart. ALso, 4 or 5 people told others they don't trust them, you never say that, that is more or less saying they can't trust you. I wonder why it is 2 hours next week, hopefully 2 people leave.

Well red tribe loses again ! lol These people are so dumb ! lets not use nina lol
duh  she could have covers some holes!
Then they voter her out over will who tires out so quickly!
I wonder how these people get things done in real life.

I saw previews and the one guys  on blue tribe who has tattoos all over says "I dont know why anyone would get a tat on their face" lol must be something wrong with them to do that.
But his tats are normal !!

These people most of them should never have been picked, the one bln on red T said I dont know why everyone takes this game so seriously ! just have fun!
Duh might have something to do with wanting to win the million dollars??

The one woman on yellow team was the only one staying at camp while others looked for the idol,
and she is smiling and gloating, but gee wouldnt that make it seem like maybe she has the idol??
Well it would if her teamates had any brains.
now the one guy who knew she has it was out there looking too, so at least he has some smarts.

Then the blue tribe....... what a bunch of losers, the one tall guy, who goes on and on about working
 and his work ethic , and tells the others cmon lets work! your not working ! cmon work to do !

Has he ever seen the show?? does he realize he is now on the show??
can he understand the concept of social game?? does he think this is a job??

I mean I respect his ethic, but he has no smarts about playing the game.
He also says over and over , if you dont like it vote me out, send me home ! LOL
wow
I noticed they also have new show music , so I guess they dont understand if it aint broke dont fix it !!!!!!!!!!!
 Tonights episode just really was irritating, frustrating, and just lame due to the people.

The other thing is I dont see how they sleep on that bamboo, I would throw some sand up there or leaves, try to make it not so  hard.
I dont think people could really sleep on that.

then the shelter red team had  , really all of them no way it would keep rain off them.

I thought of a way to use bamboo to make a rain proof roof.

Ez wrote:

T5000 wrote:

Ez wrote:

Yea, they should leave them as 3 for a while, it is the twist this season to have 3 tribes.

Well they did it with the race's and I think another time with age groups?
I just saw the race one recently and  they did not leave them as 3 for very long.
It is a drag and I would not like it, as a player, cause it is much easier to get voted out from the small tribe.

It won't be so bad if Blue Collar loses next week, then they are all tied. It usually doesn't work out because 1 tribe usually losses often, and then it is no longer a competition. I hope that it makes it 5-6 episodes, as long as 1 tribe isn't being decimated

yeah your right on that, might go longer if they stay even.

T5000 wrote:

Ez wrote:

Yea, they should leave them as 3 for a while, it is the twist this season to have 3 tribes.

Well they did it with the race's and I think another time with age groups?
I just saw the race one recently and  they did not leave them as 3 for very long.
It is a drag and I would not like it, as a player, cause it is much easier to get voted out from the small tribe.

It won't be so bad if Blue Collar loses next week, then they are all tied. It usually doesn't work out because 1 tribe usually losses often, and then it is no longer a competition. I hope that it makes it 5-6 episodes, as long as 1 tribe isn't being decimated

Ez wrote:

Yea, they should leave them as 3 for a while, it is the twist this season to have 3 tribes.

Well they did it with the race's and I think another time with age groups?
I just saw the race one recently and  they did not leave them as 3 for very long.
It is a drag and I would not like it, as a player, cause it is much easier to get voted out from the small tribe.

Yea, they should leave them as 3 for a while, it is the twist this season to have 3 tribes.

feather dude got voted out !

I cant believe the deaf girl was so dumb as to tell the black guy, that FD was worried about him!
They had it and her telling him that threw his vote to the other side.

I wonder how long they will keep them as 3 tribes??
I figure at least 4 eps, then they make it 2 tribes.

Spoilers if you haven't watched the current episode(3-4-15):



















3Q's with Jeff Probst:

Each week Jeff Probst will answer a few questions about the latest episode of Survivor: Worlds Apart.

EW: I remember when I was out there in Nicaragua for the San Juan del Sur season you had to call off a water challenge you were building due to difficulty with the strong current and how it impacted the platforms. It may have even been this same one for all I know. How were you finally able to get out there and do a big challenge on water?
JEFF PROBST: The waters in Nicaragua were very tough for us this year. Our marine team working together with our art department is truly something remarkable to witness. What the audience never sees and should never even think about is all of the underwater structures that it takes to pull off a challenge in the water. It’s a massive “underworld” that can take weeks to create, and during the challenge there are almost always a crew of people underwater making sure everything is okay. Personally, I have a very limited knowledge of engineering, so whenever I arrive at a water challenge I am always like a wide eyed five-year old getting his first look at the LEGO factory—it just blows my mind what they can do. So in answer to your question— we just got lucky and the water cooperated and we were able to pull it off. One day earlier or later, who knows? That isn’t always the case with water challenges; Nicaragua just happened to be particularly tricky.

All of a sudden, everybody is getting naked! Max, Shirin, Hali, and Jenn all went au natural in this one episode. What’s this all about? Is it just the next step in shedding the shackles of society? Is it a comfort issue of getting out of dirty clothes for a bit? Or, perhaps in the case of Max, is it just a way to ensure a little extra camera time? What gives here?
I think it’s a combination of all of the above, depending on the person. Max was very clear that he was giving a nod to Richard Hatch, so I think for him it was a “Survivor moment.”  For Shirinn, I think it was 50% strategy—to align more closely with Max—and I think the other 50% was the bit of her “No Collar” coming out to say hi!  For Hali and Jenn, completely different. They’re young, beautiful women with a much more carefree attitude toward life, and so for them I’m guessing it was just a fun idea—one they would have done with or without cameras. I love the free spirit. It bums me out how uptight most of us are with our bodies. Who cares? Just go have fun!
It’s been interesting how even though you have split the players up into No Collar, Blue Collar, and White Collar, we still see divisions among age. The three youngest people on No Collar have formed a strong alliance (and made Nina cry in the process), while So and Joaquin targeted the oldest person last week on White Collar, and Dan and Mike have had trouble fitting in with the younger folks on Blue Collar. Why do these age differences and issues with compatibility seem to cross all other lines?
Great question. I can only relate it back to my own life experiences when I am pretty sure I did the same thing. I saw older people as “out of it”—their time was over and they most certainly didn’t “get it” anymore. In Survivor, being older is also seen as a physical disadvantage. It’s fascinating for me, because I am now the “Older Guy” and it hurts the heart. I don’t get the same looks I used to get, I don’t think people see me as relevant as I used to be—all of those same things end up coming around and before you know it you’re getting subscription offers for AARP. Not that I am— I’m just saying. The great equalizer is the brain. Young people, generally speaking, are not as good at playing the game as someone in their late 30s or 40s or 50s. Strategy really benefits from experience. So don’t count out all the oldies just yet!

Two strong outings so far. Tease us up for what’s in store next week.
We start to see the nuances within each tribe emerge and this is where tribal bonds are going to strengthen or begin to fall apart.

Good episode last night, this season is shaping up to be pretty good.

Ez wrote:

I would have chosen the puzzle with 5 pieces too, it looked pretty easy to me. People I don't like so far: Feather dude, Boston dude, and the guy who was with SO, Joaquin?

me too, feather dude is just drivin me crazy , I hope he loses the feathers soon!
Joaquin is a weasel, did not like him right away.
He talked so into the deceive, then let her tell the lie, and she got voted out!
Then both were too dumb to find the idol !

The white collars were the only tribe that could not start a fire, and they lost to the other tribes.

After watching again and seeing the first, it was ok, there are some I could like, and it often takes a few shows to know
about the people.

I dont think they got to see the puzzles like we did, and they went by jeff's description.

5 Q's with Jeff Probst:

Each week Jeff Probst will answer a few questions about the latest episode of Survivor: Worlds Apart.

EW: I have been advocating for years for you guys to sprinkle in some choices people must make in the middle of challenges, so I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE what you did here with the locks/ropes and three different puzzle options. Tell me how you, challenge producer John Kirhoffer, and the team came up with the idea to do that, and is it something we may see more of from time to time?
JEFF PROBST: Thank you for continuing to push this idea. The time finally came where we felt there was a purpose to forcing them to make decisions so we went for it. I asked Johnny K and the team to not only give them decisions but to differentiate the choices so they were in line with the philosophies of the three collars. No easy feat. I think the challenge department viewed it as one of their toughest—and, as a result, most exciting—assignments. They pulled it off and that’s why it worked so well. For instance, watching the white collars take the “safest” puzzle was fascinating. I never would have predicted that—and yet, upon reflection, is makes sense. If you think about it, the white collars are the least “reactive” of the three groups. Instead of relying on instinct, they think through things, get a plan in place, and then execute. So it made the most sense to them to choose the safest puzzle and it ended up costing them the challenge. That’s one of the many reasons this season will be so fun to watch—the ability to backseat drive and second guess.

Let’s play a game of What If? You’re a player in the game and you get the option to be honest and bring back a big bag of beans for your tribe, or to deceive and bring back a small bag of beans but score a hidden immunity idol clue for yourself. What do you do, Jeff?
You left out one key ingredient—I’m with someone else. That was the key to the twist. It’s much easier to lie when you are alone. So, for me ,it would depend on the other person. I’m definitely open to lying. But I would follow their lead, then make a gut call if I thought I could trust them in the lie and if I felt they could hold the lie for 39 days. One option would be to use it as a very quick way to get rid of someone. I let them take the lead, initiate the lie, agree to go along and then immediately cast doubt on them back at camp by betraying them. Like I’ve told you many times, if I played this game I would play very big and anytime an opportunity or an option arose I would seriously consider it.

Let’s keep the “What If?” going. I am officially making you a member of the White Collar tribe. You can get rid of Carolyn (who may be more trustworthy) or get rid of So, who just killed it with the knots in the challenge. What do you do, sir?
White Collar? Me? Wow. That’s really playing “what if” at the highest level. I’m so not white collar. Let’s just say I have authority issues! Ha! But in the spirit of your “what if”—So is gone. 100%. See ya. Bye-bye. Based simply on energy and even the slightest relationship with Joaquin, who would be next to go. I just can’t trust her. She’d probably be a decent player, but not in my alliance. I’d team up with Carolyn and Max. That would be my tight 3 on that tribe. Based only on first impressions. I’d be worried that if I put Max and Shirin together they’d be too powerful as dual superfans. Carolyn would help balance out the power.

You affix these labels to people like White Collar, Blue Collar, and No Collar. What might be the most fascinating element of that psychologically is whether in a subtle way you are in fact driving them towards or away from a specific type of behavior simply by labeling them as such. Did you find any demeanors change out there from people after they were told they were a White Collar, Blue Collar, or No Collar? (Or the last time you did this with Brains, Beauty and Brawn?)
I didn’t see that with this group. From the opening moments I felt everybody believed they were in the right group. Even Nina on the no collars—who spent the last four decades of her life as a white collar—now feels most comfortable labeling herself a no collar. But you make a good point. Anytime you give one tribe a red buff and another tribe a black buff you have animosity and adversaries. So in that same vein it makes sense that you could influence someone simply by the groupthink that is inevitable on a tribe. Before you know it, a nice calm no collar winds up on the white collar tribe and is slowly brainwashed into loving the daily grind of meetings and lunch breaks and has made friends with the human resources director and is going to happy hour every night after work drinking themselves into oblivion.

Very solid premiere episode. What’s on tap for round 2 next week?
SKINNY DIPPING! Wahoo!

I would have chosen the puzzle with 5 pieces too, it looked pretty easy to me. People I don't like so far: Feather dude, Boston dude, and the guy who was with SO, Joaquin?

There are people on every tribe I like, I like Joe as well, and Max too. I knew they would vote out SO, it was way too early to be deceitful, they should have gotten the bigger bag of beans. I already like this season better than last season.

wow I watched the A race after survivor, and that is so dumb and boring!! and it has won several emmys ??!
The whole deal was make the right choice, saki bar or learn a dance, all but 2 chose dance, and then took hours trying to learn a dance, some could not do it so went on to the saki bar.
The 2 who chose saki right off took awhile to get one bottle right which was all it took, and they wound up in 1st and 2nd place.
The one eliminated went to saki bar Too late, but got the first bottle right.
I really dont understand the nieslen crowd, to watch this show for year, and not watch other much better shows.

Well I missed first 24 min , so am going to watch again, but from what I saw , they have some really lame people again , and some are just so dumb !!!!!!!
I liked the one guy joel I think who used you tube to learn how to make a fire , and he did it rather quickly , said he practiced doing it before the show.

Then there was the one girl who had told her group she was good at puzzle's and she did the simple one and got nowhere with it.
I would have chose the 5 piece puzzle, how hard could that be?? and it should be fairly quick or more so than the others.
But no one chose that one. also I felt right off that the 50 piece one was probably not a good choice.

T5000 wrote:

Ez wrote:

I just hope it is a good cast, last season's was just awful, it was hard to root for anyone

yeah they pride themselves on picking good people, but they havent done a good job of that in recent years.
too many hard body guys and bikini girls.
Not enough normal people.

I agree, that what was so great about the early season, no models planted on the show, just real people who really want to be there.

Ez wrote:

I just hope it is a good cast, last season's was just awful, it was hard to root for anyone

yeah they pride themselves on picking good people, but they havent done a good job of that in recent years.
too many hard body guys and bikini girls.
Not enough normal people.

Mike Holloway
Age: 38
Current Residence: North Richland Hills, Texas

so one guy from my state !
I think russel hanz was from texas too, not sure though.

I am watching the one with brandon his nephew, and it is so funny the 2nd time, I bet russell freaked out when he watched this S-23.
He probably screamed at the TV almost every ep.

Brandon gave up the Imm. necklace , and was voted out like eric, but seemed happy about it.
He was at times so trusting and innocent.

I just hope it is a good cast, last season's was just awful, it was hard to root for anyone

I just happened to go to after lost and saw what you posted there!
I read up on it and it looks ok, a new wrinkle is added, and premiere is 90 min.

I have binge watched S-9 thru 24, and enjoyed it.

A guy who gained fame for crooning Bon Jovi & The Eurythmics at a gas station on The Tonight Show. Another guy who taught a course on Survivor at Northwestern University. A professional barrel racer. These are just three of the contestants that will be competing on Survivor: Worlds Apart when season 30 of the CBS reality show premieres with a special 90-minute episode at 8pm on Feb. 25. Eighteen all new players will be vying for the million dollars and will be separated into three tribes: White Collar, Blue Collar, and No Collar
Host Jeff Probst explains the Worlds Apart theme: “The concept for this season of Survivor is White Collars, which tend to be the people who work in offices, might wear a suit, are in charge and they make the rules. Versus the Blue Collars, and this is really what America was built on and still what drives America, and these are people that work outside, they might wear a uniform, they work with their hands, and they tend to follow the rules. Versus the No Collars: These are the people on the outside that don’t have any interest in the status quo or tradition. It might be a jeweler, it could be a sailboat instructor, or somebody who works down on the beach. And they tend to break the rules.”

How the three types interact, says Probst, will be key. “The idea is, when you put these three very different types of people together, how will that play out, because it really is, I believe, a microcosm for what is happening in our country right now. Nobody seems to like the white collars—the rich. The blue collars are doing what they’ve always done, which is keep our country going. And the no collars have no time for either of it. They’re not interested in corporate America and they don’t really want to work in a normal job, so they just hang out on the outside sort of assessing and commenting on life and figuring out a way to get by.”

Among the White Collar tribemates is Max Dawson, who taught a Survivor course at college. Pro barrel rider Sierra Dawn Thomas is one of the Blue Collar members, while Will Sims II—who sang for free gas on The Tonight Show—represents one of the No Collar members. (See the full cast list along with photos of each tribe below.)
The theme of having three tribes representing three different aspects of society calls to mind last year’s Brains vs. Beauty vs. Brawn battle of Survivor: Cagayan. Did the success of that season help influence the creative twist for Worlds Apart? “It probably had a hand subconsciously,” says Probst. “The biggest thing that helped this is realizing the mistake that we made in season 29 [Survivor: San Juan del Sur], where we chose our theme first and then cast to that theme. That’s what you do on a traditional television show or a movie, but Survivor is different. What we do best is find the best group of people and then figure out the theme. And so we were very determined this season that that was not going to happen again. So we have this group of people and we kept looking at the different ways we could break them up.”

Of course, that’s not the only twist this season. The host also told us back in December that there will be another new element at play: “We have a new advantage in the game. Something we’ve toyed with for a long time and decided to do it this year, and it plays out great. I’ll leave it at that for now.”



White Collar Tribe

Carolyn Rivera
Age: 52
Current Residence: Tampa, Fla.
Occupation: Corporate Executive

Joaquin Souberbielle
Age: 27
Current Residence: Valley Stream, N.Y.
Occupation: Marketing Director

Max Dawson
Age: 37
Current Residence: Topanga, Calif.
Occupation: Media Consultant

Shirin Oskooi
Age: 31
Current Residence: San Francisco, Calif.
Occupation: Yahoo Executive

So Kim
Age: 31
Current Residence: Long Beach, Calif.
Occupation: Retail Buyer

Tyler Fredrickson
Age: 33
Current Residence: Los Angeles, Calif.
Occupation: Ex-Talent Agent Assistant



Blue Collar Tribe

Dan Foley
Age: 47
Current Residence: Gorham, Maine
Occupation: Postal Worker

Kelly Remington
Age: 44
Current Residence: Grand Island, N.Y.
Occupation: State Trooper

Lindsey Cascaddan
Age: 24
Current Residence: College Park, Fla.
Occupation: Hairdresser

Mike Holloway
Age: 38
Current Residence: North Richland Hills, Texas
Occupation: Oil Driller

Rodney Lavoie Jr.
Age: 24
Current Residence: Boston, Mass.
Occupation: General Contractor

Sierra Dawn Thomas
Age: 27
Current Residence: Roy, Utah
Occupation: Barrel Racer



No collar tribe

Hali Ford
Age: 25
Current Residence: San Francisco
Occupation: Law Student

Jenn Brown
Age: 22
Current Residence: Long Beach, Calif.
Occupation: Sailing Instructor

Joe Anglim
Age: 25
Current Residence: Scottsdale, Ariz.
Occupation: Jewelry Designer

Nina Poersch
Age: 51
Current Residence: Palmdale, Calif.
Occupation: Hearing Advocate

Vince Sly
Age: 32
Current Residence: Santa Monica, Calif.
Occupation: Coconut Vendor

Will Sims II
Age: 41
Current Residence: Sherman Oaks, Calif.
Occupation: YouTube Sensation