This time out, the 16 contestants include an Arkansas firefighter and paramedic, a New York City cop, a social worker trained in first aid and even a dental student.
Throw in a pastor in case things really go wrong, and the new installment of Survivor is ready to Thai one on. On Thursday, CBS unveiled the competitors for Survivor: Thailand, the fifth edition of its Emmy-winning reality game show.
Having already stranded would-be Gilligans in such far-flung locales as the island of Pulau Tiga in the South China Sea, the Australian Outback, Kenya's Shaba National Reserve and the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia, producers settled on the tropical jungles of Koh Tarutao in Thailand's exotic Tarutao Islands National Park, a chain of 51 pristine islands dotting the Indian Ocean some 600 miles south of Bangkok.
The new camera-ready squatters, ranging in age from 23 to 60, will attempt to spend 39 days in the bug- and Jeff Probst-infested forests, trying to yet again outwit, outlast and outplay each other for the million-dollar prize and, inevitably, an ice-cold Mountain Dew.
The group also includes a used-car salesman, real estate agent, first grade teacher, software-development manager, restaurant owner, pharmaceutical sales representative and, of course, a bartender.
Seven of them are single, which could mean this edition of Survivor will play out more like an episode of Temptation Island. Seven other castaways are married (including 53-year-old Jan Gentry, who brought pictures of her family as her luxury item), while 27-year-old Penny Ramsey from Plano, Texas, is engaged.
Luxury items ranged from a brush (for Tanya Vance, a 27-year-old social worker from Gray, Tennessee) to a golf club and ball (the items of choice for Louisiana restaurateur Clay Jordan, 46) to a skateboard (brought along by the apparently optimistic 23-year-old Arizona bartender and extreme-sports aficionado Robb Zbacnik, who will presumably try to skate on sand).
Per Survivor tradition, the Thai castaways will be divided into two tribes, which have yet to be announced.
Here's a quick rundown of who's who:
Jake Billingsley, 60, land broker from McKinney, Texas Erin Collins, 26, real estate agent from Austin, Texas Stephanie Dill, 29, professional firefighter-EMT from Fayetteville, Arkansas Jan Gentry, 53, first grade teacher from Tampa, Florida Helen Glover, 47, Navy swim instructor from Middletown, Rhode Island Brian Heidik, 34, used-car salesman from Quartz Hill, California Jed Hildebrand, 25, dental student from Dallas Shii Ann Huang, 28, executive recruiter from New York Ghandia Johnson, 33, legal secretary from Denver Clay Jordan, 46, restaurant owner from Monroe, Louisiana Penny Ramsey, 27, pharmaceutical sales representative from Plano, Texas John Raymond, 40, pastor from Slidell, Louisiana Ted Rogers, Jr., 37, software-development manager from Durham, North Carolina Ken Stafford, 30, police officer from Brooklyn, New York Tanya Vance, 27, social worker from Gray, Tennessee Robb Zbacnik, 23, bartender from Scottsdale, Arizona
With the idea of a bunch of connivers going at each other on a deserted island starting to sound a little stale, the producers hope to shake things up.
Survivor host Probst told CBS' The Early Show that the show will have an all-new opening. Additionally, the Thai edition will be a very wet competition, since creator Mark Burnett and company filmed Survivor: Thailand from June 10 through July 18--smack in the middle of the monsoon season, with nonstop rain deluging the castaways throughout the last half of the show.
Probst says contestants also had the "most ornate" tribal council location ever, a Thai temple.
"It was very weird to me," he said, "because you are there in your smelly khakis in this beautiful temple."
CBS will premiere Survivor: Thailand, smelly khakis and all, on September 19.