While we enjoy the last few days of 2012 I thought I would toss out my picks for who will be returning as the Favorites during Survivor Caramoan: Fans vs. Favorites.
I have kept off the spoilers for who are returning so if you actually are aware then please just keep it quiet on the actual picks until CBS announces the cast in a few weeks.
I made the decision to keep my picks from Micronesia and after which was the last Fans vs. Favorites season. I also only picked people who have only played one season.I then made a list of the top of my head and ended up with 12 people. After a Wikipedia search of the seasons I ended up with 18. Cutting down the list sucked because I enjoyed all 18 castaways but here are my honorable mentions.
Kat Edorsson One World
Greg “Tarzan” Smith One World
Troy “Troyzan” Robertson One World
Grant Mattos Redemption Island
Ken Hoang Gabon
Bob Crowley Gabon
Todd Herzog China
Lisa Whelchel Philippines
Yes I know China was before Micronesia but Todd was always one of my favorite winners and I always hoped he would have a second chance to play. I also left Lisa off my list of ten because I just don’t see them having two people doing back to back seasons at the same time and someone else makes my list.
Now on to the list starting from Survivor Micronesia and moving up to Survivor Philippines.
Erik Reichenbach Survivor Micronesia
5th Place
Erik has the distinction of making one of the stupidest moves in Survivor history. After winning the Immunity Challenge at the top five he left one of the remaining four women talk him into giving away his immunity to her and then was promptly voted out by the four other women. I’ll still not sure what he was thinking but I’d like to see him get a chance to redeem himself. He was also a good physical player and was in his early 20’s when the first season aired so should still be competitive.
Corinne Kaplan Survivor Gabon
7th Place
Honestly Survivor Gabon was a boring season but early on Corinne brought some needed drama. I think in the right scenario she can play a season like Parvati had during the first Fans vs. Favorites.
Shannon “Shambo” Waters Samoa
6th Place
The season is going to need some wacky and Shambo can bring the wacky. If she is not on the season it will be because the producers didn’t want too much wacky and some other people fit the wacky tag better.
Brenda Lowe Survivor Nicaragua
10th Place
She made the decision to trust her alliance rather then scramble to stay in the game and it cost her during her first season. Also CBS likes to have some eye candy for both men and women and Brenda will help fill that role.
Phillip Sheppard Survivor Redemption Island
2nd place
If Shambo is not included it will be because Phillip brings all the crazy you can ever hope for. I still can’t believe he stole a vote from Boston Rob during Redemption Island.
Brandon Hantz Survivor South Pacific
6th Place
CBS seems to love the Hantz family. My odds are on him doing something stupid and either being voted out or sent home by producers. Either way it will probably make for good TV.
John Cochran Survivor South Pacific
8th Place
Cochran played a scared man’s game first time. He was knowledgeable about the game but always seemed worried of doing something that would send him him like having to break a tie by picking a purple rock. That fear lead him to jumping ship on his alliance and becoming the bottom of the barrel on the other alliance. Regardless he was an interesting character and it’ll be good to see if a few years out of the game will improve his game play.
Sophie Clark Survivor South Pacific
Winner
Usually at least one winner returns and is voted out early. If I had to guess on which winner returned it would be Sophie. She played a solid game that was over shadowed by the antics of others. She wasn’t the most exciting character during her season but she did play the best game and deserved to win.
Kim Spradlin Survivor One World
Winner
I really considered not even including anyone from the horrible One World season but I relented in the end although I won’t be surprised if no one from the season is cast since I think CBS is kind of trying to pretend the season never happened.
As for Kim she was the one player who actually seemed like she was there to play Survivor so it would be good to see how she does against other people who actually are there to play Survivor.
Malcolm Freberg Philippines
4th Place
You can argue that he was one mistake away from winning Philippines. If he had played it cool with Denise he could have worked with her and forced a tie with Lisa to have a tie breaker. Although I don’t think he will play as well the second time due to the fatigue of playing twice I do think he will last into the jury at least. He is in that position where he is like a Fan since the other returning players won’t know who he is so he can easily side with either faction of survivors. They others would either assume he was evil like Russell or really likable to be a Fan Favorite. Of course once they talk to him they will know he wasn’t a villain.
Those are my picks. Hit the comments to discuss if you agree or disagree and who you would include instead. Once the actually cast is announced I’ll post them with preseason pick for who will win the season. I’ll also be back Feb 13 to recap Season 26.
Again I’d just like to ask everyone to please not post spoilers. I know there are tons out there but let’s keep it clean here and have a nice discussion.