Next season's 'Survivor' cast will be chosen by fans

The tribe has yet to speak.

A viewer vote will cast the next season of the "Survivor" franchise, choosing 20 cast members from a pool of 32 former players for the 31st season of the show, CBS announced at the end of Wednesday night's episode.

The upcoming season will film this summer and air this fall.

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The 32 candidates span the reality show's history, from the Season 1 runner-up Kelly Wiglesworth (dubbed "the rat" in a famous speech viewed by 50 million) to five contestants from the currently airing Season 30.

All of the potential contestants have never won the hit show.

"Since their respective seasons ended, these players have been begging for another shot," longtime host and executive producer Jeff Probst said. "This is a fun way to allow our loyal fans to be involved in the creative process."

They are all players that played hard until their demise, have for the most part maintained an active engagement with the show, and have earned favorable nods on and off screen from Probst.

Candidates include a Survivor "Professor" (bearded Max Dawson, bottom row), L.A. fixture Shane Powers (red shirt, second row) who now works with Tyler the Creator, and Ciera Eastin (top row, 4th from left), who voted out her own mother the last time she played. (Photo collage from CBS. Graphic by TheWrap)

It makes most candidacies unsurprising, except for early boot Brad Culpepper, a retired NFL player-turned-lawyer. Culpepper is perhaps best remembered for being the target of an enthusiastic and memorable "F— You Brad Culpepper" shout. After being eliminated early in "Survivor: Blood vs. Water," he ducked out of the show's mandatory sequester trip and flew himself back to the U.S.

As for the reveal, the surprise announcement came at the end of Wednesday night's "Survivor," confirming a buzz of chatter online and more loudly in the L.A. community of Survivor alums in recent weeks that a "vote-on" campaign was coming.

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Nearly half of the field (15 of 32) hail from the last two TV seasons (fall 2013-present). This encompasses four actual "Survivor" seasons. A full list of potential cast and the year they last appeared on the series follows at the bottom.

Two popular candidates: Shirin Oskooi (who became an advocate online after suffering verbal abuse on the show) and Joe Anglim, were both eliminated from the current season, but could be back this fall. (Robert Voets/CBS)

Polls are open at CBS.com/SurvivorSecondChance (online and mobile) from now through 9.00 p.m. on Wednesday, May 20, the night of this season's "Survivor:Worlds Apart" live three-hour finale episode.

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"Survivor" has regularly won the Wednesday night timeslot this season, beating "Idol" by an average of 2.42 million viewers, and with an average of 2.3 to Idol's 1.5 in the key A18-49 demographic over the last four weeks.

Not The First Fan Vote

This is not the first time that "Survivor" fans have been able to step in to the shoes of Mark Burnett, Probst, and the "Survivor" brain trust.

Back in May 2004, CBS squeezed the juice from its popular first "All-Stars" edition, a season that began huge as the lead out to the infamous Janet Jackson Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction and concluded with an on-air proposal.

They tacked on a primetime sweeps special a few days after the season concluded called "America's Tribal Council," where fans voted to give returning player Rupert Boneham $1 million dollars in a mass popularity contest.

Since then, there have been sponsor-related votes for several seasons to pick a "Player of the Week" or a "Player of the Season," winning up to $100,000 in sponsor cash. However, this is the first time that casting director Lynne Spillman, having put forth the field of 32, can sit back and let the fans play "fantasy casting."

Cesternino (left) and prospective returnee Stephen Fischbach (right) sold out the Gotham Comedy Club in NYC for a March live episode of their "Survivor Know It Alls" show. (Photo by Josh Spaulding)

The floodgates on self-promotion will be open and for now, it does not appear that CBS will be pumping the breaks on the hyperactive social media savvy returnees.

Rob Cesternino, a two-time player who is not in the running, may be the busiest non-candidate over the next two weeks.

A full-time reality TV podcaster, his "Rob Has a Podcast" has become the proverbial "Meet the Press" for "Exit Interviews" with eliminated cast members and the top platform for a community of high profile reality alums (from Spencer Pratt of "The Hills" and original "Survivor" Richard Hatch to Probst himself) to publicly comment on current seasons.

Cesternino's community includes Season 31 candidates Spencer Bledsoe and Stephen Fishbach (white arrows) and a slew of prior winners (green arrows) like Natalie Anderson, Sophie Clarke, and Parvati Shallow. (Josh Spaulding)

His co-host on one show, Stephen Fishbach, is a candidate to return and will have the full use of the platform and the audience of thousands over the next few weeks.

"I do think that my show is going to play a big part in informing the voters about the candidacies of these players," Cesternino told TheWrap. "I plan to offer my platform to any of the potential return candidates, come on with me, talk about their candidacy, why they should be on the show, and the good and the bad of their first 'Survivor' stint."

Each candidate has a campaign video up at CBS.com and voting is underway here: CBS.com/SurvivorSecondChance

See the complete list of cast and the year they last appeared on screen below.

Series Premiere, Summer 2000 (Survivor: Borneo): Kelly Wiglesworth

Season 3, Fall 2001 (Survivor: Africa): Teresa "T-Bird" Cooper

Season 7, Fall 2003 (Survivor: Pearl Islands): Andrew Savage

Season 12, Spring 2006 (Survivor: Panama): Shane Powers and Terry Deitz

Season 15, Fall 2007 (Survivor: China): Peih-Gee Law

Season 18, Spring 2009 (Survivor: Tocantins): Stephen Fishbach

Season 22, Spring 2011 (Survivor: Redemption Island): Natalie Tenerelli and Stephanie Valencia

Season 23, Fall 2011 (Survivor: South Pacific): Jim Rice and Mikayla Wingle

Season 24, Spring 2012 (Survivor: One World): Troyzan Robertson and Sabrina Thompson

Season 25, Fall 2012 (Survivor: Philippines): Abi-Maria Gomes

Season 27, Fall 2013 (Survivor: Blood vs. Water): Ciera Eastin, Brad Culpepper, Vytas Baskauskas

Season 29, Fall 2014 (Survivor: San Juan Del Sur): Kelley Wentworth, Keith Nale, and Jeremy Collins

Current Season 30, Spring 2015 (Survivor: Worlds Apart): Joe Anglim, Shirin Oskooi, Mak Dawson, and two contestants still in the game as of preparing this list, Carolyn Rivera and Mike Holloway. If either Rivera or Holloway win this season, they will be ineligible and removed from the vote-on.