Jeff Varner will be returning on Survivor Second Chance a whopping 15 years after his first appearance in the series on Survivor The Australian Outback. That beats out Gervase Peterson‘s record for the longest time between Survivor seasons for a male player.
For Survivor Cambodia Second Chance, Jeff Varner will be part of the Ta Keo (green) tribe, along with Abi-Maria Gomes, Kelley Wentworth, Kelly Wiglesworth, Peih-Gee Law, Shirin Oskooi, Spencer Bledsoe, Terry Deitz, Vytas Baskauskas, and Woo Hwang. (Full Survivor Second Chance cast list.)
Jeff will be joined by fellow Survivor The Australian Outback competitor Kimmi Kappenberg on the new season, although they won’t be on the same tribe. That may be a good thing, since information she inadvertently revealed before a tiebreaker vote was largely responsible for Jeff getting voted out in 10th place on their previous season.
During his previous Survivor run, Jeff Varner was lucky enough to be part of the fan favorite Kucha tribe, a group still well-loved by hardcore show fans even to this day. The viewers loved and identified with Jeff, who brought an ‘everyman’ flavor to the season, and it’s not surprising he ended up voted onto the Survivor 2015 Second Chance cast.
Let’s just hope this time Jeff doesn’t do something incredibly facepalm-worthy again, like stepping down from an immunity challenge for peanut butter. He actually said at one point after the show that he stopped eating peanut butter after that embarrassing decision!
Click thumbnails for bigger pics or to scroll through.
Out in the real world, Jeff has entertained TV audiences in an entirely different way as an entertainment reporter for KCBS in Los Angeles, a reporter for E! News Live and the TV Guide Channel, and until recently, a main news anchor for a CBS affiliate station in Greenville, NC.
Jeff Varner may be reaching the half century mark of birthdays, but that doesn’t mean he plans to have any less fun on the show this time around. In fact, he hopes he’ll actually appreciate the experience even more now.
Jeff Varner says 15 years is a long time between Survivor seasons, according to Entertainment Weekly, but he’s more than ready to enjoy the heck out of the experience yet again. Jeff says that “like the game itself, I’ve grown, matured, changed, and learned to appreciate things much more than before.”
As far as his game strategy this time around on Survivor Cambodia Second Chance, Jeff plans to go at it pretty much the same way he did before by being “free” and allowing himself to just “let go and have fun.”
We hope that Jeff will be just as much fun to watch as his last time on the series when Survivor Cambodia Second Chance debuts on September 23, 2015.
Join us on Facebook, Twitter, and by Email updates to get our latest Survivor spoilers, news, results and more!
Photos: CBS, and Jeff Varner Facebook & Twitter