Twenty four seasons... and some said it wouldn't even return after the first.

But the naysayers were wrong. After the litigation was settled, Tossed Off did return, and was mightier than ever.

Here we look back at the highlights and winners of the past 24 seasons of the world's longest-running reality TV program.

Season 1: The Beginning

The premiere of Tossed Off was met with a lot of fanfare and controversy. And airborne ash.

The idea was radical. Borrowing the concept from the Slovakian TV program "Kill or Be Killed", the Network adopted the scenario for American audiences: 18 people would be plucked from their cushy jobs as models, waitresses, would-be actresses, bikini models and models to survive more than a month on a deserted tropical island, where each week one would be voted off by the others, until only one remained. The winner would get $10,000,000. (That number was reduced to the standard $1 million after the Network's problems with its offshore bank.)

Retired network news reporter Chet Bastardly was hired to host the program, and soon the two teams were battling each other and the elements on Pariah Island, a tiny dot of palm treed land for which the location has never been revealed.

The two teams - Team Outcast and Team Castout - battled for supremacy during physical challenges, including the famous Barb Wire Swallow and the daunting High Pitched Noise Challenge, until only 9 remained. At that point the teams merged, and the remaining contestants fought each other for the grand prize.

With only four remaining, one player - Jack "Ass" Hoel - died of consumption while competing for a brand new car, leading many to believe he cursed the car. Since then, the "Curse of the Car" has remained, and every player who has won the car has gone on to a horrible fate, such as disease, death, dismemberment or being elected Town Council Supervisor.

(The Network disavows any responsibility for the Curse of the Car.)

Finally, the last two contestants - Josie Keckle and Matthew "Porn Star" Lewis - met in the "Ring of Electricity" and only one emerged victorious. Josie would win the $1 million, and become the show's first winner.

However, shortly thereafter the island exploded after the generators (required for the Ring of Electricity challenge) went haywire, setting fire to the local native's fireworks factory which happened to be sitting right next to the generator room. The entire island was consumed, and except for the cast and crew of Tossed Off, who were helicoptered out, there were no survivors.

The Network would have to find a new site for its second season.

Season 2: The Return

Once all the class action lawsuits were closed out, the Network could return Tossed Off to the air. Producers found a new island -- equally hidden, and as yet still unfound -- and established it as "Site 2", which remains the site for all Tossed Off seasons to this day.

The sophomore season was hindered, though, when the local residents of the new island offered some hesitation about becoming immediately famous. Negotiations went on throughout the season, sometimes affecting actual shooting; this was most evident in the infamous "hail of gunfire" incident while Brooke, Tiffany and Louisa were helping each other bathe in the shallow water.

(PS: Brooke is fine, and doing well with her new orthotic limbs!)

Despite the interruptions, in the end it was former Army PFC Micheal Hornberg who won the competition, beating his runner up opponent handily -- and we mean that literally, he beat him to death with his hands.

Well done, Micheal!

Season 3: Farewell, Chet Bastardly

Of course, Season 3 will always be known as the darkest moment in Tossed Off history. Midway through the season, our beloved host Chet Bastardly exploded, taking with him the only copies of his will and life insurance policies, all of which just happened to be in his pocket that day.

Stepping in to finish the season would be newcomer Matt Lauer, better known to hardcore fans as "Whiny Baby Matt Whiner" because of his incessant on-screen complaining about the mosquitoes and plague. Of course, Lauer would later go on to become famous for his work on The Today Show, as well as for inexplicably cutting his hair far too short, and then leaving it that way no matter what anyone said.

The death of Chet Bastardly so overshadowed the season, that even the Network doesn't remember who won that year, or what else happened. (If anyone knows, please write us.)

But Tossed Off would gain its footing with the introduction of its new permanent host, for Season 4.

Season 4: Welcome, Mike Tanley

Fans were anxious about who the Network would pick to replace their fatherly Chet Bastardley. The media buzzed with possible names for his replacement: Whiny Baby Matt Whiner Lauer, Charles Krauthammer, Jerry Lewis, David Tennant ... even Cokie Roberts was tossed around. (Literally, some say.)

But at the final hour, it was the mysterious Mike Tanley who made the cut. (Also literally, some say.)

(For more on Mike's background, click here.)

While his arrival was marked with some level of pomp and circumstance -- Mike demanded the local aboriginal peoples greet him with a ceremony involving their naked children and a boiling vat of vodka -- the first episode was admittedly a dud.

Perhaps after getting feedback from the producers on the public's reaction to his first outing, Mike upped the ante and began to establish himself as the "Great White Hunter of Humanity" that we now know. The second episode called for a "Train Derailment Challenge" and it was Mike who improvised the special ending to it: after the contestants had survived the train's violent derailment, and plunge into the ocean, it was Mike who let them know that he had placed fragile wooden cases of AIDS-tainted blood under their seats. The surviving contestants may have thought they were done, but for decades later their personal physicians would say that it was Mike Tanley who really had the last word on that point.

Well done, Mike!

After the two teams merged, and whittled themselves (literally, in at least one case) down to a single man standing, it was bikini model Molly Whoresbathe who claimed the prize. Molly would later go on to build a very profitable modeling career in Sports Illustrated, GQ, Cosmo, Playboy, Penthouse, Hustler, Juggs and Crack Whore Monthly (in that order).

Season 5: Sober in Cyberspace

Intent on making his second season a memorable one, Mike Tanley attempted the impossible: he would do the entire season sober. Even David Blaine called him crazy for attempting it.

Unfortunately for Team Nutlump and Team Oddspot, sobriety made Mike Tanley cranky. He routinely judged the challenges wrong, often awarding the win to the obvious loser (obvious because they were usually dead), and sometimes issuing a loser's punishment to the winner. In a textbook case of irony, for example, Tanley awarded the prize of a new grand piano to the loser of the "Let's Cripple Your Hands With Hammers" challenge.

Midway through the season, The Network got all hi-tech, and managed to dump the surviving contestant's brain patterns into a virtual world. During the "First Person Shoot Her!" Challenge, outcasts fought Nazi wolfmen and hellish demons while listening to 8-bit music through two-bit headphones. To enhance the realism, if a player got killed in the "virtual world," Mike Tanley would hit them with his shoe until they bled.

The digital age had arrived, and in the end it was surfer and male model Cole Brittan who lasted the longest, or -- at least -- showed the least brain damage.

Image (c) 1994 id Software.