Last we heard from Walton High Schol graduate Malcolm Freberg was late last year, licking his wounds after just missing the finals of "Survivor: Phillipines."

But host Jeff Probst (obviously in concert with the producers) invited the Dartmouth graduate and full-time bartender back for the 26th round, debuting tonight. In fact, Probst broached the subject to him mere minutes after the host doused his flame during tribal council.

"I'm so hyper-competitive," Freberg said in an interview this week. "It felt like it was a video game after you lost. Play me again! Let's start right now!"

If anything, it softened the blow of losing due to shaky hands, which cost him an immunity idol. "I get a mulligan!" he said.

Freberg took a mere two and a half weeks off, then flew back to the Phillipines for the latest round and the siren song of $1 million to take back home.

In 26 seasons, he is only the second contestant to tape back-to-back seasons with such a tight break that nobody on the island knew who he was. (The Phillipines episode was taped in the spring and the Caramoan version airing now was taped last summer, long before "Survivor: Phillipines" debuted in September.)

The other in the same boat? The infamous Russell Hantz, the Machiavellian game player who made it to the finals his first trip but came in 16th during his second one. ("I heard he isn't a big fan of mine," Freberg said. "I don't want to speak for him but I hear he's jealous. I have 14 inches on him!")

So is it an advantage for Freberg to be an unknown going in? Hard to say. "I knew going in I had to make a good first impression," he said.

Freberg admitted he was not in as nearly as good a physical shape for the second go around after 38 days of playing the game.

"My body was wasted," he said. He only lost 10 pounds, helped by the fact he was able to participate in all the winning food rewards. But it was still physically punishing to live like that for five-plus weeks.

He said originally, he planned to run a bit and eat healthy while on his brief break but instead, he gorged like a contestant before "The Biggest Loser."

"I sat on the couch eating ice cream and cookie cakes. Everything just disgusting under the sun. I ate whatever my heart desired. I think the only time I ran was after the pizza delivery guy," he said. Result: 15 pounds gained, making him heavier than he was going in the first round.

He said fans may even see him tonight with a small beer gut.

He hopes his mental toughness will make up for any physical weaknesses going into this competition. (Of course, he's talking to me already knowing whether he made the finals or not but he has to pretend he doesn't.)

"I never came out of 'Survivor' mode," he said. "When I was at home, I didn't allow myself to revert to my normal being. I didn't interact with friends a whole lot either."

His friends never caught on tp what he was up to because he was the type of free spirit who could disappear for weeks at a time. "I'm a single bartender in L.A.," he noted. "I didn't have a whole lot to leave behind."

Freberg comported himself well during the last round of "Survivor," which is why the producers decide to place him in the "favorites" category without a single fan having seen him to even judge whether he was worthy of the title.

"My mom wasn't embarrassed by what I did," he said. "That was the highest standard."

Question: can he do it again?

On TV

"Survivor: Fans vs. Favorites," 8 p.m. Wednesdays, CBS