| They all said yes to the stress: former Survivor SA castaways return for another chance to try to outwit, outplay and outlast after falling short in their first seasons. Executive producers promise that Survivor SA: Return of the Outcasts on M-Net (DStv 101) from Monday 18 July with daily episodes is the most unpredictable and brutal season yet – shattering preconceived ideas.
Survivor SA co-executive producers Leroux Botha and Handrie Basson sat down with Channel24 to talk about how they chose who got to return, why the show itself returned to the Eastern Cape province and its dune-filled Sunshine Coast this time – and why on earth people who've suffered the brutal conditions of the reality competition show before, are eager to come back.
On how the show chose which castaways to bring back from the former seasons, the Survivor SA Don, Leroux Botha, who is co-executive producer, creative producer and series director, says the casting process of something like this reality show is "quite a science", whether you "cast a brand-new season or whether you cast a returning season".
"It is quite a science, and there's a lot of work and collaboration that goes into it with M-Net itself," he explains.
"When we started looking at a returning season – because there are existing permutations of returning seasons out there in the Survivor universe, whether it's All-Stars of Fans vs Favourites or Second Chance or Game-Changers - we really wanted to do something different."
Survivor SA: Return of the Outcasts is on M-Net (DStv 101) Mondays to Thursdays at 18:00, from 18 July.
Click 'read more' to find out more about season 9. | 