Let's meet the tribes, shall we? On the blue Kucha (according to the show, that means "kangaroo" in an aboriginal language), we have Debb Eaton, 45, a prison guard from New Hampshire; Rodger Bingham, 52, a carpentry teacher/farmer from Kentucky; Kimmi Kappenberg, 28, a bartender from New York; Nick Brown, 23, a Harvard Law student from San Francisco; Alicia Calaway, 32, a personal trainer from New York; Michael Skupin, 38, a software publisher and family guy from Michigan; Jeff Varner, 34, an Internet project manager from New York; and Elisabeth Filarski, 23, a shoe designer from Boston.

For the green Ogakor ("crocodile"), it's Keith Famie, 40, a chef from Michigan; Amber Brkich, 22, an administrative assistant from Pennsylvania; Jerri Manthey, 30, an aspiring actress from Los Angeles; Colby Donaldson, 26, an auto customizer from Dallas; Maralyn Hershey, 51, a retired cop from Virginia; Mitchell Olson, 23, a singer-songwriter from South Dakota; Kel Gleason, 33, an Army intelligence officer from Fort Hood, Texas; and Tina Wesson, 40, a nurse/mom from Tennessee.

If you were hooked on the first series, you'll be glad to know that creator Mark Burnett and his staff have not tampered with their formula of evocative nature visuals (oh, come on, who doesn't love kangaroos and koalas?), shrewd editing and savvy casting -- when you see the tribal dynamics start to kick in, you realize that these contestants, as pretty as many of them are, were chosen as much (maybe more) for personality type as for looks.

The chanting theme song remains -- now marked with a buzzing, ominous digeridoo. Blazing torches still symbolize life. Jeff Probst (Aborigine for "great white stiff") still wears his Somber Face when he summons the losers to tribal council. But, you have to admit, after the animatronic Julie Chen on "Big Brother" and the pointless Anderson Cooper on "The Mole," Probst is starting to look like frickin' Walter Cronkite.

Whether or not "Survivor: The Australian Outback" can duplicate its ratings glory of last summer, it's still a smartly turned-out piece of reality-entertainment cheese. Or maybe it just seems that way, now that we've seen its freakish offspring: "Big Brother," "The Mole" and "Temptation Island."

At the very least, after watching it, you don't feel the need to be scrubbed down with bleach like Meryl Streep in "Silkwood."

But the biggest difference between "Survivor" and every other reality show is that it lives up to its billing. Did you see Debb from Kucha and Keith from Ogakor laboring intensely and without success to make fire in the premiere? Without fire, you don't eat and you're cold at night. "Survivor" is a show about survival (doh!), which may seem like a no-brainer until you watch the contestants on "The Mole" engaged in a life-or-death struggle to do laundry.

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