Paul Leyden (SIMON, AS THE WORLD TURNS) confesses that he was "ridiculously hooked on the last Survivor," and is quite interested to see how the new contestants handle his homeland on Survivor: The Australian Outback.

"I was born in Queensland (where the show takes place), and I shot a miniseries there." he explains. "It's stinking hot during the day, and there is absolutely no cloud cover at night, so it can get really cold. There are creepy-crawlies and critters; some of the world's most dangerous spiders and snakes live in that territory. The good-looking gym junkies and city people are going to find it hard."

How hard? Leyden warns that finding drinking water will be a challenge. "They are probably near a water hole or a stream, which will make it easier. Normally in those outback areas, people put plastic bags over branches in trees and wait till the condensation comes off the trees. It drips onto the bag and they drink that--that's a good old Australian survival tactic."

As for food, Leyden--who says that famous Australian animals like kangaroos, wallabies, and wombats are protected by law--predicts that contestants might try "a famous aboriginal food called witchetty grubs. It's kind of what they had to eat last year on the show; they are going to have to eat lots of fat, juicy bugs. They won't find too many rats, but they'll find snake, and they can cook that up. Lizard. They are going to have to survive off smaller, reptilian animals. And most are poisonous, so it's going to be interesting."---TONYA LENSCH