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Interesting that one of the contestants had to be pulled from the game the day before they began shooting.

Here is the quote from Reality Blurred from Errin's interview:

Erinn Lobdell was actually the second person I spoke with in Brazil, at a river-side camp that served as Survivor Tocantins' comparatively miserable Ponderosa. (The first person was pulled from the game for medical reasons one day before it began, we were told.)

I wonder if they meant to start with 18 and with one person pulled for medical reasons, maybe they had to readjust and go back to an even 16. Or I wonder if there are still extra players brought to Brazil for situations like this, and if this person was replaced, I wonder who was the replacement. Wasn't Tina the stand in for Australia, and she ended up winning.

Just read more at blurred, Spencer is/was the alternate:

...and the show's youngest contestant ever, a 19-year-old student who's a Survivor fanatic and gay.

While unfounded rumors about the 18th season-the first to allow 18-year-old applicants-included having 18 18-year-olds, there are, in fact, no 18-year-old cast members, but the show does have its youngest cast member ever: Spencer Duhm, a student at the University of Florida, who is 19. (Previously, producers made an exception for 20-year-old Frosti Zernow.) However, this season almost had zero cast members under the age of 24, since Spencer was actually an alternate subbed in at literally the last minute.

So I guess they lost a guy just before filming and sounds like they planned on 16 cast members from the start. And truth, he is the only one under 24? Interesting..