CBS will devote its entire prime-time schedule Wednesday night to 90-minute season premieres of “Survivor” and “The Amazing Race,” which both have new twists.
The 30th season of “Survivor,” whose premiere airs from 8-9:30 p.m., will have the first-time theme of “Worlds Apart” with the 18 contestants divided into “White Collar,” “Blue Collar” and “No Collar” tribes.
The No Collar tribe includes four Southern Californians — Jenn Brown, a 22-year-old sailing instructor from Long Beach; Nina Poersch, a 51-year-old hearing advocate from Palmdale; Vince Sly, a 32-year-old coconut vendor from Santa Monica; and Will Sims II, a 41-year-old from Sherman Oaks described by CBS as a “YouTube sensation” for appearing on a video on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” shot at a Costco gas station that went viral.
There are three Southern Californians on the White Collar tribe — Tyler Fredrickson, a 33-year-old Los Angeles resident who was an agent’s assistant at Creative Artists Agency; So Kim, a 31-year-old retail buyer for a major department store from Long Beach; and Max Dawson, a 37-year-old media consultant from Topanga.
The six-member Blue Collar tribe does not include any Southern Californians. It consists of a state trooper, barrel race, oil driller, hairdresser, postal worker and general contractor
“We have a really good combination of very smart, high IQ and very savvy …” host and executive producer Jeff Probst said. “That’s a deadly combo.”
Sly expressed optimism that the life he has lived — living on his own from when he was 15 and traveling to 37 nations — “will benefit me in this game.”
Dawson was an assistant professor in Northwestern University’s Department of Radio, Television & Film, including teaching a course on reality television titled, “The Tribe Has Spoken: Surviving TV’s New Reality.”
Dawson modeled the course after “Survivor,” dividing the class into tribes and giving the tribe with the highest score on the weekly quizzes immunity from the midterm exam. Six former contestants visited the class.
Kim said she has “always lived by my work. That’s what defines me.”
All 11 teams on the 26th season of “The Amazing Race” are dating duos.
“Usually we have people who know each other really well,” said Bertram van Munster, one of the series’ co-creators and executive producers.
“In this particular case, we have five blind dates and six regular dates. Going on a blind date to a restaurant is one thing, but going on a blind date around the world is like rolling the dice in a big way.”
Two of the blind date couples include Southern Californians. Laura Pierson is a 29-year-old talent booker for a morning television show from Los Angeles, whose date is Tyler Adams, a 26-year-old mobile app developer from Santa Monica.
Jenny Wu is a 32-year-old blogger and lawyer from Los Angeles whose date is Jelani Roy, also 32, a lawyer from New York City.
The other couples include Winter Olympic medalists Aly Dudek and Steve Langton and New Kids on the Block member Jonathan Knight and Harley Rodriguez, one of the series’ two same-sex couples.
Tonight’s episode, which airs from 9:30-11 p.m., will take the teams to Tokyo. The next episode will air Friday in its usual 8-9 p.m. time slot.
The winner on “Survivor” will receive $1 million as will the winning team on “The Amazing Race.”
— City News Service