For the first time, not including the season before, "", there were eighteen players. In the first seven seasons, there were only sixteen. This was the second season where the starting tribes were divided by gender. It was also the first season to have an amputee (Chad Crittenden, who had lost a foot to cancer) and not one, but two open lesbians (motivational speaker Scout Cloud Lee and old "Playboy" model Ami Cusack).