‘Survivor: Second Chance’ debate: When should CBS revisit fan vote?

Yes, we know that there are some serious disappointments within the “Survivor: Second Chance” voting results. The lack of Shane Powers is terrible, and we’d argue that the same is true for Teresa T-Bird Cooper. We were also surprised to see Carolyn Rivera get snubbed, mostly because there were so many voters out there who assumed that she probably won “Survivor: Worlds Apart.”

For the most part, though, you have to think that this entire process was an enormous success for CBS. Reality Blurred reported earlier this week that there were ten million ballots cast. Who were these voters? We are sure that some of them were casual fans, but judging for the most part by the results (which did include some contestants from older seasons and also at least some female villains), the majority were probably semi-hardcore to hardcore fans voting several times a day on several devices. If one person voted on three different devices once a day for ten days, that’s thirty votes. Shane is the only major outlier to us, and we feel like another reason for his snub is some big fans opting to cast votes elsewhere, assuming almost that he was a lock to return.

So when could CBS revisit this twist? We’d argue as early as next year, with a vote for potentially either other second-chance players or even some “legends” to return to the game. We’d argue to do one more season like this, mostly because we still feel like we can name enough people who are worthy of returning (Jean-Robert, Crystal, Kenny, RC, Jenn, Helen, Twila, Hayden, Rodney, David Murphy, and Ian, for example) who have not received that chance.

Also, you can still potentially throw in people who didn’t make the cut this time. We feel like Carolyn’s a shoo-in with the proper opportunity to campaign, and maybe people like Max Dawson and Jim Rice will fare better with a little bit of a sympathy bump on their site. (Shane, unfortunately, told Rob Cesternino in a pretty incredible interview that he’s done with “Survivor” and this process now.)

Should CBS start up this process again next year? Share in the poll below, and head over here to get some other “Survivor” coverage, including exit interviews from the finale! Also, you can sign up now to get some more TV news on all we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: CBS.)