CBS announces ''Survivor: All Stars'' cast

It’ll be a reunion of snakes and rats when the veterans of past ”Survivor” contests gather for ”Survivor: All-Stars.” At least one player from each previous edition of the show will be present, including most of the past winners and other fan favorites. The 18 players will divide into three tribes and compete on the site of the most recent competition, Panama’s Pearl Islands, when the all-star edition debuts on CBS on Feb. 1, right after the Super Bowl.

From the initial ”Survivor,” Pulau Tiga alumni include Jenna Lewis, Susan Hawk, Rudy Boesch, and the show’s first winner, Richard Hatch. ”Australian Outback” winner Tina Wesson is returning, as are her fellow castaways Colby Donaldson, Amber Brkich, Alicia Calaway, and Jerri Manthey, who tells CBS News, in an understatement, ”The last time, I didn?t know what I was into and I got cranky.”

”Survivor: Africa” winner Ethan Zohn will play, along with his castmates Lex Van Den Berghe and Tom Buchanan. Rob Mariano and Kathy Vavrick O?Brien will represent ”Survivor: Marquesas.” From ”Survivor: Thailand,” only ”she-devil” Shii Ann Huang will be back. Jenna Morasca, winner of ”Survivor: The Amazon” will compete, along with fellow Amazonian Rob Cesternino. And from ”Pearl Islands,” audience favorite Rupert Boneham will return to familiar territory. Of his initial stint on the show, Boneham says, ”I went into it wanting to show I was the best ‘Survivor.’ This might be the platform for me to show them all.”

If viewers have their favorite heroes and villains, so do the show’s makers. Asked whose torch he’d most like to see snuffed, host Jeff Probst tells CBS News, ”Probably Richard Hatch. He?s one of the few people whose torch has not been snuffed and probably the guy who needs it most.” But Hatch, the first player to figure out how best to manipulate the contest’s shifting alliances, sounds like he’s lost none of his survival skills. ”I thought it would be tougher initially,” Hatch says, ”And, you know, I have no ego. But I?m thinking maybe I?m wrong, maybe the game is going to be even easier because at this point, I know the contestants. I know those little game pieces that I?m going to be pushing around the board.” Let the knife-twisting begin.