New Survivor Season Will Pit Beauty Against Brawn and Brains

Survivor just finished up its 27th season. When a TV show’s been on the air for that long, you’ve gotta get creative to keep the viewers tuning in. Which perhaps explains the concept for Survivor: Cagayan, which’ll debut in February 2014: Entertainment Weekly reports that contestants will be divided up into competing tribes of “brains,” “brawn” and “beauty.”

Assignments are based on “the different qualities that people bring to Survivor,” according to host Jeff Probst. “Not saying these necessarily are the only three, but these are three very distinct type of people.” According to the reality TV laws of physics, anyway.

In fact, he’d have you believe that if you think about it, this is really, like, a social experiment:

“The premise we were going for was kind of layered,” Probst continues. “Is there one quality that is clearly more valuable in Survivor? And what happens when you tell somebody they’re in the smart tribe. Do they believe it?”

Expect lots of sports metaphors from the brawn, and as for “the beautiful people,” Probst found it fascinating to watch them “talk about their beauty and how charm gets them through life, and watch it play out in alliances.”

So if you’ve been watching this show since the beginning in the hopes of a real Lord of the Flies season, you might finally get your wish.