Playing the players

The motto for "Survivor" has always been "outwit, outplay, outlast," and that goes for the show's producers as well.

They started trying to outwit the players during the casting for the new season, which begins tonight at 7 p.m. on CBS/Ch. 2.

"We referred to it as 'The Big Con,"' host Jeff Probst told critics in a teleconference.

The new season of "Survivor: Micronesia" — subtitled "Fans vs. Favorites" — is yet another twist on the formula that has made the show a hit through 15 previous seasons. When the tribes are lined up tonight, one will feature 10 people who are new to the game but are huge fans of the show.

The other tribe will feature 10 "favorite" contestants from past seasons. That's the group the producers conned by letting them know this edition would feature 20 players.

"They figured there must be 20 favorites going," Probst said, giving producers "20 people on the hook, thinking they were going."

"We knew all these guys were talking on the phone to each other and trying to build alliances before the show even started," Probst said. "So we wanted to complicate it a little bit."

The 10 favorites aren't necessarily the 10 best players. There are no winners among them.

And some are people viewers loved to hate, like the infamous Jonny Fairplay, who lied about a death in his family in an attempt to gain an advantage.

But the 10 fans were excited when they saw they were up against Fairplay, Yau-Man Chan, James Clement, Ami Cusack, Cirie Fields, Amanda Kimmel, Ozzy Lusth, Eliza Orlins, Jonathan Penner and Parvati Shallow.

"We wanted people that would be enamored when they discovered that they were playing against some of the favorite people ever to play 'Survivor.' And then we hoped that that idolatry would turn into animosity," Probst said. "And it did."

The fans literally applauded the favorites, "and then when they realized the favorites weren't there to make any new friends, the game quickly became us-against-them. And that's how they hunkered down. The fans wanted to be sure that a fan won the game, and the favorites wanted to be certain that, no matter what, a favorite won the game."