| abstract | - Survivor: Micronesia - Fans vs. Favorites is the sixteenth season of the CBS reality television series Survivor. Pitting die-hard Survivor fans against some of the series' past contestants, this season is the show's third to include contestants from past seasons, after the all-returning contestant pool from Survivor: All-Stars and Survivor: Guatemala in which two contestants from Survivor: Palau returned for a second chance. Applications were due on July 7, 2007. Around August 2007, 800 applicants were selected for an interview by CBS. Out of these 800, about 48 semi-finalists were selected to go to Los Angeles sometime during September 2007. From these semi-finalists, 10 contestants were selected to participate in the show between late October and mid-December 2007. The full cast of 20 contestants were revealed on January 32008 by Entertainment Weekly. In the same article, it was also revealed that Palau winner, Tom Westman, was invited to participate, but declined. In other interviews, host Jeff Probst revealed that a list of 20 Favorites was put together (enough for an entire game) and then 10 of them were cut. Others included for consideration were Shane Powers (of Exile Island), Yul Kwon (of Cook Islands), and Courtney Yates (of China), though Probst confirmed that Yates declined the opportunity. The contestants were split into two tribes, fans and favorites, named Airai and Malakal respectively. Both tribes were named after islands in Palau. The season was filmed in Palau, marking the second time Survivor has filmed there (the first being 2005). The filming locations for this season were the same as those used in Survivor: Palau. Exile Island returned this season after being absent from Survivor: China, with a new twist of one castaway from each tribe being sent to Exile Island where they had to compete to find the Hidden Immunity Idol.
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