All-Star Cast Analysis: Season 4 and Champions

I got a little tied up with a few things outside of the blog. My apologies.

Here we sit, on the eve of a season I was never sure we would see. And as such I find myself returning to familiar territory. I have to say I'm surprised there are five contestants from Season 4. It seems like it would be difficult to do this (or any reality competition show) back to back. However like every season so far there are some highlights and low-lights, so let's take a look at who came back to the ranch.

Season 4

William Bethards
Not very excited for Mr. Hey Diddle Diddle, but we'll see if he can spend a little less time yapping and little more time hitting his mark.

Gabby Franco
An excellent choice and someone I am very excited to see some back. Gabby is rarely without a smile on her face and I think it would be awesome to see her go up against the best and come out the winner. 

Chee Kwan
His biggest downfalls seem to come with the obstacles that are incorporated into the challenges, rather than the shooting itself. If he can keeps his nerves in check when Colby throws a curveball, he should do just fine.

Gregory Littlejohn
My only question is: Who gets the friendship bandana this time around?

Kyle Sumpter
The guy who is so earnest it hurts. I can't really hold anything against Sumpter. He's a strong shooter, a great leader and genuinely a nice guy. But I do have trouble watching his one on one interviews.

I would rather see: Terry Vaughn, Dylan Fletcher and Tim Trefren. I think I've made my feelings about Vaughn pretty clear, so no need to be redundant. Fletcher I only started to like at the end, so I would have liked the chance to root for him from the start. Had Trefren not gone up against Chris Cheng in that elimination challenge I think he could have very easily made it to the individual portion of the contest. 

But wait there's more...

Since tomorrow is the premiere I'm going to double down on one other post I had planned but wasn't able to get to.

The one noticeable factor missing from the cast roster is the lack of champions. Iain Harrison, Chris Reed, Dustin Ellermann and Chris Cheng are nowhere to be found. I look at this two ways:

Glass half-full:
The promos already have shown the inclusion of Dustin and Chris during one of the challenges, so it isn't like they are going to be entirely absent from the proceedings. The argument can be made that these guys have already proven their talent as shooters and don't need go through it again. It also might look bad if one of the champions got knocked out early.

Glass half-empty:
This is an all-star season that is missing its four fiercest competitors. It's hard to claim being an all-star champion without beating at least one previous winner.

I wish I could tell you I have a good plan for posting tweets, recaps and analysis of each episode, but I still don't have cable. So if anyone knows someone at History Channel or Pilgrim Studios, ask them if they could send me screeners. I would really appreciate it. Otherwise I plan on getting up early Thursday and seeing what my streaming options are. Follow me on Twitter @cswiets for updates.

What are you most looking forward to in tomorrow's premiere?