Last week, Jeff Probst spoke with the media about Survivor: Micronesia - Fans vs. Favorites, and the recent announcement that CBS has picked up Survivor for two more cycles. Although we all know that he would never ever ever reveal any secrets that Mark Burnett doesn't want him to, he did provide a few details about the upcoming season that made me feel like an insider. (You will too, after you read this!)

The Fans vs. Favorites format of the new season means each tribe will have advantages and disadvantages. The Faves have all played the game before, and therefore they have some idea what it will be like, what strategies work, etc. Plus, most of them know each other from various Survivor alumni gatherings and events. On the other hand, the Fans get to be an unknown quantity, and invent their games as they go along. We all know that Jonathan or Jonny Fairplay aren't going to get far pretending to be sincere, for example. (James and Amanda presented an interesting, in-between case; because there were only six weeks in between the time the Survivor: China contestants came home and had to leave to film this cycle. The episode where James was booted hadn't aired yet. Amanda did even not know whether she had won China. More importantly, the other Micronesia players didn't know, either, so James and Amanda had the option to lie about their game if they wanted.) Jeff said that although the Fans were initially in awe of the Favorites, that admiration quickly turned to animosity. By the first challenge, the Fans were eager to take on (and take out) the Favorites.

To recruit the Favorites for this cycle, the producers let the former players they talked to believe they were doing another straight All-Stars season. This allowed them to have more options, and also gave the opportunity for an element of surprise. They wanted to include Yul and Shane but didn't have spots for them this time. Tom and Courtney were asked to participate, but declined. Jeff did not want to include Jonny Fairplay (it's no secret that he doesn't like him), but said that he was eventually talked into accepting the idea. Regardless, it will be interesting to see interaction between those two. (Well, for one episode, at least. I still hope Fairplay gets voted out first because I'm going to get tired of him pretty fast.)

To fill the Fan tribe, they really wanted to find people who were truly Survivor super fans. Kathleen has applied seven times and knows every episode and player inside out. Erik is 22 and has been watching since the show debuted, hoping it would last long enough for him to have a chance to participate. He sounds like a good, entertaining character, too. He's a track runner and Jeff said he runs everywhere; before filming starts, the contestants were together but not allowed to talk to each other, and everybody was asking who the "crazy running guy" was.

This season, Exile Island is back, instead of having Immunity Idols hidden at camp. The twist is that one member from each tribe will go, so they will be there together, and will either have to search for the Idol together, or try to sneak away from each other so they can look. According to Jeff, there are a record number of blind-side votes this season. Also, someone makes an even bigger blunder than James did last season when he failed to play an Immunity Idol. (Jeff said James was pretty happy about that.) Yau-Man told my sister that there are a couple of romances that developed this season, and Jeff confirmed that, and also said that they play a big role in the way the game goes. He also said that they shot some of the most "intimate" footage they have ever gotten. I guess it's a good thing that condoms are one of the two non-food, non-reward items provided for the contestants. (The other is tampons. Good to know.)

I was disappointed to see that Survivor was returning to the same old tropical beach location for this cycle. Jeff explained that they enjoy shooting in Palau because it is a pretty location where they can get good underwater footage. Conditions are decent for the players in terms of being able to catch fish and so forth, although he did say that they just got hammered by the weather this time. The crew is able to stay in a nice hotel where they can have family visits. In China, they were in a very remote location and the crew lived in tents. Jeff says they try not to do that two seasons in a row, since some of the crew has to be at the location for as long as four months. (How long does it take to hide an individual Immunity Idol, anyway?)

You may have noticed before that each season of Survivor has a little something that sets it apart. Jeff calls this the "creative." The creative can be a unique location, as it was in China, or it can be another type of twist, like this season's "Fans vs. Favorites" concept. Jeff (who is also a producer) promises that they are kicking around some exciting ideas for the next two cycles, recently ordered by CBS. I think I prefer the cycles where they go to a cool location over the cycles where they're on a beach in the South Pacific with some other sort of twist. During a similar press conference last fall, while promoting Survivor: China, Jeff mentioned the possibility of a setting a cycle in British Columbia. I'd love to see a cold-weather version, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that.

Survivor: Micronesia - Fans vs. Favorites will premiere Thursday at 8pm ET. Tune in, and then visit Film.com on Friday to see what HamsterDame, my Survivor bloggin' partner in crime, has to say about it.

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Amy Kane spends as much quality time with her television as possible, when she's not busy at her day job as a cube dweller.

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