User blog comment:TDWTfan1113/Do you like that TDAS being a half-season, or did you wish it were a full season?/@comment-35640410-20130415010755

Honestly, I think the only reason this season is double-packaged with the former being vets vs. newbs and the latter being a bunch of uncalled for new characters basicly comes down to this:

Since TDA, I've noticed each season after TDI tries to have as many episodes as TDI did (which is why TDA and TDWT had reward challenges and aftermaths; also known as filler episodes, but the aftermaths were interesting imo). From the looks of TDAS, they want this season to be 26 episodes again, but they seem to just want to get rid of reward challenges and aftermaths.... so as the result, they decide to make the remaining 13 episodes basicly nothing but fillers as well, with again having the latter a bunch of random new contestants who most likely will A) be poorly designed, and B) a bunch of Gary-stu's/Mary-Sues for the most part.