Survivor

Survivor is revisiting one of its best twists, Blood vs.

Water, but this time the show is making the game even more brutal.

We will have the loved ones show down every episode with a major consequence on either side.

The only way to win and be a hero is to beat your loved one and send them to exile.

There's no escape.

With no returning players, it's a brand new cast this time, but there are a few familiar faces.

Twinnies!

I played Major League Baseball for a number of years.

We'll introduce all 18 players who will compete against each other and their loved ones.

In this game, I want to get as far as I can.

We have such a strong social game that we can play that I think it's best if we're apart.

I know she could beat me in this game.

Plus, we'll tour this amazing tribal town.

Find out what former winner Parvati Shallow is doing on location.

And it's your first look at two challenges you'll see this season.

This is Survivor San Juan del Sur, Blood vs.

Water Preview.

Survivor is returning to the familiar shores of Nicaragua, repeating a theme

that brought the show one of its most explosive seasons.

I think with the... The first Blood vs.

Water season, what we realized is, as risky as it seemed at the time,

the payoff was the emotion between someone that you're either related to or have

married into, whatever that connection is, it just amps everything up.

We're changing the creative up this time on Blood vs.

Water.

We're keeping the premise the same, which is you bring a loved one out to play

with you, but we're changing up the creative.

Redemption Island is gone, so this time when you're voted out, you're out.

And this time around, Survivor is bringing the loved one's twist to a whole new level.

We will have the loved ones show down every episode with a major consequence on either side.

If you win, you are a hero, because you single-handedly won reward for your tribe.

And if you lose, you are going to exile.

So the only way to win and be a hero is to beat your loved one and send them to exile.

There's no escape.

The plan is that every episode, at least until the merge, you will have these one-on-one hero duels.

So a new loved one couple will go at it in the next episode.

So everybody, theoretically, should get their shot, unless, of course, you get voted out before that time comes.

When contestants go to Exile Island, they will be faced with two urns.

One has a clue to a hidden immunity idol.

The other is empty.

You'll go out to exile with the other person, and the two of you will decide,

do we tell anybody there's a clue, or do we keep it to ourselves?

Then you have to go back to your camp and figure out how to find the idol without

anybody noticing that you're digging up your entire camp.

This season started with Day Zero, which we did last time we did Blood vs.

Water.

We sent all the couples, nine couples, out into the jungle, and they each had a flint and steel.

Several couples got fire going.

Some didn't.

Then the next morning, they come in to see me, and this is when we divide them into two tribes.

And no matter how prepared you are for that, and I know they were all, they know it's blood versus water.

They're going to play against each other.

It's still hard to separate, and then we find the first twist of the game is you're

going to be going up against your loved one.

The only way to impress upon your new tribe that you have any worth at all is by crushing the other.

And I don't think either one of them wanted to lose, and I don't think either one of them wanted to beat the other one.

And those were the stakes going into the first challenge.

And unlike the previous blood versus water season, This group

seems to have more of a sense of humor than we've had in the past.

There was a lot of laughter when they first came and met me and we introduced everybody.

Not everybody looks alike.

There are definitely interesting-looking people that come from different parts of

the country that are going to play the game differently.

Anybody can win.

That's what I love.

You're looking at 18 people going, who will it be?

Because it could be any of you.

One pair of contestants will be very familiar to fans of another reality series.

Twinies!

Natalie and Nadia are contestants that were on The Amazing Race, and they did so

well, and they were so well-liked, and they had so much personality.

And we had had success before using Hayden from Big Brother.

So we were open to the idea.

We met them and instantly loved them.

The twins ran two seasons of The Amazing Race.

Their first time, they finished in fourth place.

They returned for the All-Stars, and were the first pair eliminated.

Natalie and Nadiya, I'm sorry to tell you that you are last.

And you have been eliminated from the race.

So our first season of Amazing Race was, we had the best experience, even though we didn't win.

We went in the second time, we got to win, we got to win, we got to win, like,

totally over, yeah, we just over-analyzed everything, we didn't go with our gut instincts.

I think what Nadiya and Natalie have going for them as players is experience.

Even though Amazing Race is a different game, there are similarities.

And out of the gate, I asked them a question, and their answer was very politically correct.

That's a good trait.

They know not to piss anybody off so early.

Everything that's going on in Amazing Race is totally, completely different here.

And also, the biggest change is that we don't, when I'm doing this together,

I don't, I can't rely on Nadi to have my back.

I have to, you know, kind of makeshift a new 20 out there that I can trust.

They're great storytellers.

They're nutty as can be.

They talk all the time at the same time.

And you never really know what they're going to say.

Their personalities are great at blending because they seem to be able to find a party wherever they are.

I'm hoping if people recognize us, there's one of two things can happen.

Either people are going to be stoked about us being here and be like, yeah, good players.

I want to work with those bitches.

Or they're going to be like, those bitches are crazy.

Get them off.

We're going to scare them off.

This is like taking away food, comfort, lodging.

But the most important thing is they're taking away my 20 from me, which is I

would give up all of that just to have Natalie with me.

Totally.

Oh my God, Trini, you're so nice.

Nobody's going to pressure me into voting my sister off.

And if I did it, it means I would be going all the way to the finish line and then the bank with the money.

I actually think that they could do okay in this game.

They made a lot of jokes about being the only brown people.

I'll make people laugh, you know, I'll put on a comedy act every night.

I don't care.

Comedy hour, bye, brownies.

Totally.

I think being separated, it works to their advantage because together, they're too powerful and they're too much.

They talk a lot and they're funny and they're loud.

I would expect both of them to be around for a while.

My name is Jaclyn and... And I'm Jon, and we are boyfriend and girlfriend.

We're both naturally really competitive, so I think that that's gonna come out a lot this season.

Me and pageants and him and football, we're just competitors.

We both want to win.

I entered my first pageant, Miss Michigan USA, and I won.

And ever since then, I've been kind of pigeonholed into this beauty queen girl.

And, I mean, I love pageantry and what it did for me, but that's not who I am.

So I think that Survivor is the complete opposite of that.

I was born with MRKH syndrome, which basically means I was born without a uterus.

I've never had a period, and I can't have my own children.

So I joined with the foundation and was verbal about that all year.

Now, to see her talk about it, it's so much easier.

It really was therapeutic, I think.

Yeah, it was.

I had never met anybody with the syndrome before I came out with it because it's one in 4,000 women.

So it was pretty incredible to do that.

Coming into this, I told Jaclyn, I thought that I was going to have to downplay my athleticism.

Being a starting Division I linebacker, I thought I was going to be the athletic threat.

And as soon as I walk here and I see all these athletes and this guy who's just...

twice the size of me, looks like he's in the NFL, this sprinter who looks like he's

10 times more athletic than me, I was like, yes!

My best strength for Survivor is also a big thing that I need to monitor because it could bite me very hard.

And that's that I'm very likable.

I have a very childlike youthfulness to me.

Very lighthearted.

Jon and Jaclyn are an interesting couple to me because I believe that Jon is glad

he's playing against Jaclyn because it releases the burden.

of having to take care of her.

You know, when you're in a relationship, you look out for each other.

And in a game like Survivor, you really need somebody to look out for you.

But if you get separated by the game, hey baby, sorry, they put you on the other

tribe, then you can just go full steam ahead.

I think Jaclyn is in trouble.

She's not one that I think is going to last long.

She'll hate me for saying this.

I hope I'm wrong.

Going into it, I think she's going to get bowled over by some other people.

I think they're just going to run over her, and there'll be a stronger alliance

of people who have a bigger mouth and are willing to talk faster and act more

quickly, and I think Jaclyn will need to move very fast to have a shot in this game.

I definitely think that we're perceived as maybe this all-American couple that maybe

doesn't have any flaws or something stereotypical like that, just by outside

appearances, but I think that once people get to know us, they'll see that we're real and relatable.

If it is possible for us to work together after the merge, without endangering our

plans and, like, saying, okay, let's try this, but, you know, it's really risky, I'm gonna win.

I'm gonna win.

You're dreaming, babe.

Later.

We go behind the scenes as these loved ones go head-to-head in the first immunity battle of the season.

And up next, meet the Broadway boyfriends who were first cast as individual players.

We got on separately, essentially.

They didn't even know we were together initially.

Plus, what fireworks will this controversial former major leaguer bring to the game?

If people, you know, do know me, of course, they'll bring some of the,

you know, some of those possible stereotypes about me.

He's made some controversial statements, which he'll talk about openly.

Survivor San Juan del Sur, Blood vs.

Water Preview will be right back.

Welcome back to Survivor San Juan del Sur, Blood vs.

Water Preview.

I'm Julie.

I'm John, and we are boyfriend and girlfriend.

Fans of baseball will recognize left-hand pitcher John Rocker.

I played for the Atlanta Braves, Cleveland Indians, Texas Rangers,

and Tampa Bay Rays for Major League Baseball for a number of years.

After retirement, I did some real estate, dabbling in real estate investing and whatnot.

A few years ago, I started a not-for-profit for homeless veterans.

Rocker became a household name in December 1999 when he gave an

interview to Sports Illustrated that was left out of the show.

Laced with racism and bigotry.

If anybody knows his history, he's made some controversial statements,

which he'll talk about openly.

If somebody brings that baggage into the game from his personal life and says,

I don't like what you had to say, or I don't like what you say you stand for, that can cost you.

I'm pretty sure when I get out there, I'll find out, you know, if someone wants to call me out, whatever.

If they do, I'll own up and, you know, make the best of that situation,

whatever it brings.

I think those are huge obstacles to get over, but I think that's why Jon took it.

I think he likes the challenge and knows that I have more obstacles than the other guys coming in.

That's okay.

Let's see how I do.