Changes are in store for this season of SURVIVOR. Some of them good and some of them…? We’ll have to see how they play out.

The SURVIVOR hype machine has gone into overdrive promoting this season’s location: China. It bills this as the first American series filmed entirely in this country. Honestly, the location has never been that interesting to this regular SURVIVOR watcher. What makes or breaks the season is the players and SURVIVOR seems content to stock the show with both the recruited and the volunteered. This time there are even a couple of quasi-celebrities with a WWE female wrestler, a Christian Radio host and a professional poker player. I think it’s hard for the producers and host Jeff Probst to hold themselves above the messy affairs of loosely scripted reality TV and then cast these professional attention hogs but I’ll still watch.

The cast starts out at 16 players as opposed to the 20 that the last couple of seasons have labored under. This should make the early episodes easier to follow. Another plus in my eyes is the end of Exile Island. Never much cared for this particular game twist. What is taking its place maybe worse though, as it is a convoluted kidnapping scenario that was too murky to follow. While I reserve judgment until I see it played out (the interactivity of the tribes will be a plus), I am skeptical at the outset.

The use of location looks to be vintage SURVIVOR hokey kitsch as all the contestants are given copies of Tzu Sun’s THE ART OF WAR and they visit the Shaolin temple where kung fu was created. Is it too tacky to hope the final challenge involves imprisoning dissidents and an endurance challenge facing down a tank? Probably.