When asked about the possibility of an all-winners season during a 2018 interview with
Us Weekly, host and executive producer
Jeff Probst stated that it was unlikely, saying, "we have 10 great winners that you'd want to see play again. We don't have 20. We don't have 18. Some of the winners don't want to play again. Some of the greats are like, 'No, we're done.'" In 2019, CBS president
Kelly Kahl, who had been a proponent of
Survivor since its beginning, suggested the idea again to Probst as a way to celebrate the show's 20th anniversary, and nearly all of the previous winners that were asked accepted the offers to return. Among those who accepted who the production team had considered unlikely to return were married couple
Rob and
Amber Mariano, who had begun their relationship while competing on
Survivor: All-Stars, and
Survivor: Micronesia winner
Parvati Shallow, who had initially declined the offer as she had recently given birth. Probst has cited those three accepting the offers as the impetus to move forward with the season. Among those that did not return included
John Cochran, winner of
Survivor: Caramoan, whom Jeff Probst called "the only one that would have been on the list [where] if he had said yes would probably have a spot on the show" in an interview with
Entertainment Weekly.
Richard Hatch, winner of the show's first season,
Survivor: Borneo, was not included due to his behavior in
Survivor: All-Stars in which he competed in a challenge naked and his genitals made incidental contact with another contestant,
Susan Hawk, who quit the game shortly thereafter. "Given his history on our show, it did not seem appropriate", said Probst to
Us Weekly. "We were in a different time and different culture back then and we would never let him run a challenge naked now." According to
Inside Survivor both Tina Wesson, winner of
Survivor: The Australian Outback, and Mike Holloway, winner of
Survivor: Worlds Apart, were included in the mix for casting but cut along the way. Additionally,
Survivor: Fiji winner Earl Cole was contacted, but declined due to the birth of his child.
Survivor: Panama winner Aras Baskauskas was also contacted but declined, feeling unwilling to leave his children.
Survivor: China winner
Todd Herzog confirmed on the
Talking with T-Bird podcast that he was contacted and considered, but ultimately cut.
Survivor: Gabon winner Bob Crowley was not contacted to compete.
Survivor: Marquesas winner Vecepia Towery confirmed on the
Talking with T-Bird podcast that she was not contacted to compete.
Survivor: Edge of Extinction winner Chris Underwood was asked to return, but he declined when he received the call just 12 hours after getting married.
Survivor: Thailand winner Brian Heidik was not contacted to compete.
Survivor: The Amazon winner
Jenna Morasca confirmed on the
Talking with T-Bird podcast that she was not contacted to compete.
Survivor: Nicaragua winner Jud "Fabio" Birza was not contacted to compete. It is unknown if Chris Daugherty (Winner of
Survivor: Vanuatu), James "J.T." Thomas Jr. (Winner of
Survivor: Tocantins) or Natalie White (Winner of
Survivor: Samoa) were ever contacted. As Tommy Sheehan had not yet been announced as Winner of the previous season
Survivor: Island of the Idols, he was not considered for the cast. While Denise Stapley was the oldest player to play the game, her age of 48 was much lower than many other seasons' oldest players. Nonetheless, the average age of the players for this season is the highest of any other prior season at 37.85 years, beating out
Survivor: Nicaraguas average age of 37.6 years, and much higher than the average ages of players from several of the past recent seasons which have skewed younger. Probst said they did not even consider the age of the players when asking the winners to return, though did feel that older players are more interesting to watch, as their maturity brings unique facets to the game. ==Game format==