‘Survivor: Second Chance’ voting: The eight greatest snubs

For the most part, we’re super-excited about the “Survivor: Second Chances” vote, though we will admittedly reveal one fear to you already: That it will be heavily stacked of contestants from the past three seasons. Is there any way that Spencer, Kass, Tasha, Woo, Shirin, Joe, Jeremy, and Mike are not on this season? To us, that feels like eight spots almost locked in, and given that we really like Kelley’s chances, as well, that is nine. Almost half the cast, and it could be half if either Carolyn or Max get in. We want to see all of these people play again, but at the same time, we’d probably figure out a way so that only a couple from each season make it on this time, and then save some for later on down the road.

What we wanted to do in this article is give you eight people, four men and four women, who we personally feel like are getting snubbed from the opportunity. Note that we’re using the same criteria here as “Survivor” is, and picking people who have never been brought back, and also who have never won before (at least to date; using the CBS criteria, it is still theoretically possible that Mike or Carolyn won).

Kenny Hoang (Gabon) – We love Gabon, though we realize that we may be the only one. We may also be somewhat biased in Kenny’s favor, given that we are an extreme video-gamer and are reasonably familiar with the “Super Smash Bros.” community. Still, he was a great strategist who is routinely overlooked because of other people in his vein now a la Spencer or Cochran.

Jean-Robert Bellande (China) – You need villains, and Jean-Robert is that plus a huge personality at the same time. He’s probably not a guy you necessarily want to be out there with, but he is compelling television to watch.

Hayden Moss (Blood vs. Water) – We guess that Hayden was thought off as having too unfair an advantage, given that he has already won “Big Brother” in addition to being out on “Survivor.” Still, he technically fits the criteria and was a good player.

Judd Sergeant (Guatemala) – Judd’s probably one of the meaner people to play the game, at least in terms of the way he left the game with his crocodile line. Still, it’s nice like Shane was sunshine and rainbows, and Guatemala is supremely under-represented on other seasons.

Twila Tanner (Vanuatu) – A really great character for the show who has made it far in casting before for returning player seasons, but somehow did not even make the list here.

Crystal Cox (Gabon) – We imagine that some news away from “Survivor” in the athletic world hurts her chances a little, but are you really going to tell us that Crystal Cox is bad TV? She’s tremendous TV!

Natalie Bolton (Fans vs. Favorites) – Overlooked somewhat by Parvati and Cirie on her season, Natalie was still a really sharp player and a strategist in her own right. It’d be great to see her back.

Chelsea Meissner (One World) – There are a few younger women in the voting pool who we feel barely did anything their first time in the game; Chelsea, meanwhile, is someone who contributed a lot to “One World,” and has the outdoor experience to boot. How do you overlook her?

Obviously, we imagine that a factor here may be whether or not people were interested; maybe some people above were asked and they declined. We automatically didn’t consider people like Colleen, Elisabeth, and Shambo, who we have heard have no interest at all in returning. (Shambo told us years ago that she wouldn’t go back even if you paid her $5 million upfront.)

Click here to see the full poll of contenders, and we’ll have more analysis soon. Also, sign up to get some other TV updates sent right over to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: CBS.)