It’s pretty crazy that Survivor is about to air its 31st season. The show has been on television since the turn of the century, and in that time we’ve seen a slew of contestants make their mark on the show. For the upcoming season, fans were actually able to vote on what contestants they wanted to see return, but there were still a few fan-favorites the show wanted to ask back but did not end up on the show for one reason or another. Recently, host Jeff Probst revealed the four former Survivor contestants the show really, really wanted back: Jeff Kent, Greg Buis, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and RC.
Even casual fans of Survivor are likely aware of Jeff Kent and Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Kent is a former MLB player who was a pretty aggressive player during his time on Survivor, but didn’t end up winning the show. Hasselbeck’s Survivor resume is even more impressive, considering she used her gig on Survivor to earn a slew of other roles in the entertainment industry, hosting The View and, more recently, Fox & Friends. Probst says that Hasselbeck has said “no” so many times, they didn’t even ask her this time. He also told EW the show really wanted Kent, but he wouldn’t commit to being available.
[We asked] Are you in or are you out?’ And he said, ‘You know, call me another time.’ So he was wishy-washy.
As for RC and Greg Buis, the show really wanted them back for the new season, likely so Buis could bust out the coconut phone from Season 1, but he had just taken a gig as the CEO for a nonprofit, so the coconut phone is not to be.
In addition, RC didn’t have the best experience on the show, and flat-out told Probst’s team no, especially after finding out Abi is involved.
RC, we wanted, and she didn’t want to play.
So, if one of those people is your favorite Survivor personality, you’re out of luck. Instead, after everyone voted on who they wanted to return, some newbies and old favorites will be back for another round. Joe Anglim, Vytas Baskauskas, Spencer Bledsoe, Jeremy Collins, Terry Deitz, Ciera Eastin, Stephen Fishbach, Tasha Fox, Abi-Maria Gomes, Woo Hwang, Kimmi Kappenberg, Peih-Gee Law, Kass McQuillen, Keith Nale, Shirin Oskooi, Monica Padilla, Andrew Savage, Jeff Varner, Kelley Wentworth and Kelly Wiglesworth will all be returning.
Survivor: Cambodia – Second Chance will be hitting the schedule pretty soon. You can catch the new cast in action—sans a few fan favorites—on Wednesday, September 23 at 8 p.m. ET. If you want to find out when the rest of your fall TV favorites are returning, head here.
