Let the games begin ... again

Twenty-four of our best Survivor players are going back for another crack at glory, writes Seanna Cronin

IF AUSTRALIAN Survivor fans think it’s too early to have an all-stars series then they need to do their homework, says the show’s host.

Jonathan LaPaglia returns to our screens next month in Australian Survivor: All Stars, which pits previous winners, villains and favourites from the past four seasons against one another in the reality show’s most competitive instalment yet.

“Honestly, that was my initial knee-jerk reaction too when I heard about it way back when,” says LaPaglia. “But as some other people have pointed out, the US had their first all-stars season at season seven, so six seasons in, but remember their seasons are half of ours in terms of episodes and number of players. We’ve had almost the same number of players they had for their first all stars, so you know, I think there’s an argument for it and against it, but certainly there were enough highly competitive players in the previous four seasons to fill out the card.

“You never know until it’s all cut together but I think it’s going to be a killer season.”

Preparations for All Stars began in Savusavu, Fiji, immediately after Pia Miranda was crowned the season four winner.

“For me it was a six-week break, but some of the construction crew didn’t even leave the island. A lot of those guys are there three months before we start shooting, so they stayed on,” LaPaglia says.

Only a handful of the 24 all-star contestants have been revealed so far, including previous winners Shane Gould and Jericho Malabonga.

“Everyone in this season are high-profile players, so they all have a target of some description on their backs,” LaPaglia says.

“It’s not impossible to win twice. Sandra (Diaz-Twine) in the US did it.”

The other returning castaways are out for redemption and, in some cases, revenge.

“There really was a noticeable difference in a lot of their gameplay,” LaPaglia says. “The moment they hit the beach, it really was gloves off. You’ve got 24 highly competitive people … There were a lot of brutal blindsides.”

Filming at a different time of year presented unexpected new challenges.

“A lot of contestants ended up with spider bites,” LaPaglia says. “They weren’t particularly a problem in and of themselves, but a lot of them got infected and there were some people who had some pretty serious infections.”