For the second time in just over two years, the hit CBS reality/competition show "Survivor" will feature a 22-year-old "gay Mormon."

Pleasant Grove's Todd Herzog will be trying to outwit, outplay and outlast the other 15 contestants and win a million dollars when "Survivor: China" premieres on Thursday, Sept. 20. (Actually, the season has already been shot and is currently being edited. Which is why CBS doesn't make contestants available for interviews until after they've been eliminated from the show — for fear that they'll give something away.)

"I'm a huge fan of 'Survivor.' I've been a fan since Day 1, since I was 16 years old," Herzog says in a video clip on cbs.com. "I've wanted this for six years now. And now that it's here, I'm so ready to get out there and play this game as hard as I can."

Herzog is the second Utahn and fourth with Utah ties on "Survivor." What seems beyond coincidental is that he's the second 22-year-old, self-professed gay Mormon on the show — the first was Rafe Judkins (who was born in Utah, raised in Pittsburgh and lived in Providence, R.I.). Judkins finished third on "Survivor: Guatemala" in 2005.

Neleh Dennis was the most successful contestant with Utah ties — she finished second on "Survivor: Marquesas" in 2002.

Ashlee Ashby was the least successful. The former Brigham Young University student (who was born in Idaho and raised in South Carolina) was the second contestant voted off "Survivor: Palau" in 2005.

Herzog, a flight attendant who graduated from Pleasant Grove High and attended Utah Valley State College for two years, tells fans in his cbs.com clip that he is a "very people person" who is "very positive" and "can get along with pretty much anybody." (Which is definitely a skill needed to succeed on "Survivor.")

Herzog and the other 15 contestants will be going where no "Survivor" cast has gone before. Where no American television series has ever been produced before — mainland China. They will be on two separate islands on Zhelin Lake in the Jiangxi Province.

Herzog describes himself as a "hard worker" who will "give it 110 percent." And he says the hardest part of the experience "is not having Starbucks on the island."

"I've got to prove I can do this," Herzog says. And he thinks he has a chance "as long as I can go and don't (tick) people off too much or stand out too much as the freak of who-knows-what."

Hopefully, he didn't tell the other contestants this tidbit from his online biography: "He thinks the Spice Girls are the most significant historical event of the past 100 years and is unbelievably stoked that they are going on a reunion tour this winter."