Survivor 3 Contestants Announced

September 25, 2001 -- The third installment of CBS's ratings phenomenon Survivor — this time set in the wilds of Africa — is bowing this month, but pundits expect the cutthroat politics of the "reality" game show to take a back seat to the alliances and power plays being played out on the nightly news.Real-life events have already forced producer Mark Burnett to scrap plans for Survivor 4 to be set in the Middle East. In August, USA Today reported that Burnett had decided on Jordan, possibly the ancient city of Petra that was featured in the film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Now that the region is gearing up for war, Burnett is eyeing a move to peaceful Tahiti, according to the fan site Survivornews.net.Keeping the Kims and Kellys StraightAs for what we can expect when Survivor 3 debuts Oct. 11, here are the 16 new players ready to outplay, outwit, and outlast for their chance at $1 million. They include an openly gay bartender, a vegetarian soccer player, a cattle rancher, and — our bet for the breakout star of the show — a kickboxing sheriff who's also a beauty queen. There's also some inevitable doubling up on the first names, including two Kims, who'll be referred to as "Kim J." and "Kim P." There's also a new Kelly, not to be confused with river-rafting guide Kelly Wiglesworth from the original show

Survivor: Africa Contestants:Brandon Quinton: 25-year-old bartender from Dallas. He's gay, but was once married.

Carl Bilancione: 46-year-old marathon-running dentist from Winter Park, Fla. Married 21 years with two children.

Clarence Black: 24-year-old high school basketball coach from Detroit.

Diane Ogden: 42-year-old postal carrier from Lincoln, Neb. Twice divorced.

Ethan Zohn: 27-year-old soccer-playing, vegetarian Vassar graduate.

Franklin Garrison: 43-year-old Dutch-born telephone technician from Odessa, N.Y. Wife Polly is pregnant.

Jessie Camacho: 27-year-old kickboxing deputy sheriff from Orlando, Fla. Has worn the crown of "Miss Puerto Rico, Orlando."

Kelly Goldsmith: 22-year-old behavior research analyst from Rancho Sante Fe, Calif. Hobbies include, in her own words, "lifting weights, crocheting, and manipulating men."

Kim Johnson (Kim J.): 57-year-old retired elementary schoolteacher from Oyster Bay, N.Y.

Kimberly Powers (Kim P.): 29-year-old freelance marketer from Conshohocken, Pa.

Lex van den Berghe: 38-year-old tattooed drummer from Santa Cruz, Calif. Married with two sons

Linda Spencer: 44-year-old cancer survivor who works at Harvard University. Has spent two summers living in Africa with no running water. Married with two kids.

Lindsey Richter: 27-year-old former ad exec from Portland, Ore.

Silas Gaither: 23-year-old wannabe actor from Tennessee who now tends bar in Los Angeles.

Teresa Cooper: 43-year-old flight attendant/real-estate agent from Jackson, Ga. Once ran a marathon when she was nine months pregnant. Married with two children.

Tom Buchanan: 46-year-old goat and cattle rancher from Virginia. An avid hunter, he is known as "Big Tom" to his friends. Married with one son.

Survivor: Africa was filmed on the Shaba Game Reserve, one of the most popular national parks in Kenya. The reserve is about 140 miles north of Nairobi, Kenya's capital, and is where the '70s lion pic Born Free was filmed.

We imagine that this time around producers were more sensitive to environmental concerns than they were in the Australian Outback, where contestant Colby pocketed coral from the protected Great Barrier Reef.