• CBS pre-game "Meet Pete" video (YouTube)
• CBS pre-S25 "Meet the Cast" video (YouTube)

• Official CBS Survivor: Philippines bio page
• Follow Pete Yurkowski on: facebook; twitter.
• Pete's modeling agency, Wilhelmina Models.

Images from the preview, pre-game interviews, and other circa-Ep1 Philippines footage:

Vidcap gallery: Click on thumbnails to expand; use arrow keys to navigate between enlarged pics.

From MSN.com's Meet the Cast gallery (by Minh Nguyen):

"Pete says: 'I want to let someone else take control. They'll be the shepherd, and I'll be the black sheep making chaos throughout the entire tribe.'

Jeff Probst says: 'Peter is going to be around for a while. But it'll probably take a strong alliance to drag him to the end.'"

Excerpts from his CBS.com Survivor: Philippines bio page:

"Personal Claim to Fame: Graduating with an engineering degree and putting it on the back burner. Gotta' do what you love.
Hobbies: Going to bars and meeting girls, going to the gym and making beats.
Pet Peeves: Stupid people definitely sit at number one. But, here goes the list: ditsy girls, girls that wear tiaras to bars on their birthdays, meat heads, people that are happy all the time, people that beat around the bush, bad ideas, traffic circles, buildings that are structurally unsound and escalators – especially when they don’t work.
3 Words to Describe You: Crazy, funny, manipulative and intelligent.
If You Could Have 3 Things on The Island What Would They Be and Why?
1) My stuffed pillow pet turtle named Hambone. He is coming because Hambone goes where I go. He will be an icon for the show. Plus, how can girls not melt when they find out that one of the things I brought was a stuffed animal. 
2) A bottle of rum.
3) Ukrainian Flag… Grandpa would be proud. 
Survivor Contestant You Are Most Like: Russell Hantz, because he manipulated everyone and was a boss the entire time. Puppet mastery is the name of the game.  
Reason for Being on Survivor: I want to be the alpha male. This show is predominately about who is the leader of the pack and that’s me. I’ve been busy with school and graduation but now that’s all over. It’s my time to dominate this game and win it. Plus, I want a million dollars. 
Why You Think You’ll 'Survive' Survivor: I’m strong, I’m agile, I have excellent balance, I’m intelligent, I can empower you through the use of speech, I can strategize like Napoleon and I’m a leader. 
Why You Think You Will Be the Sole Survivor: I take charge of situations and am willing to put my reputation on the line to manipulate and make it to the end. I am not on the island to make friends. I want to win. I have the athletic and intellectual means to conquer anything and anyone you throw at me."

From his EW.com pre-game interview, by Dalton Ross:

"Wait, I didn't know Taylor Lautner was playing Survivor this season! But the Twilightlookalike has a plan for how to deal with returning players. 'You have to use them to the merge,' says Team Jacob. 'Learn what you can from them as fast as you can and then get rid of them. Because if you keep them around, they win fan favorite. I want $100,000!'"

Summary of evidence for Pete Yurkowski being on Survivor: Philippines.

- (5/6/12) Mixed in with some slightly off information (correct tribe names but matched to the wrong colors), S25-S26 spoiler beatlebum79 mentions Pete as a Survivor: Philippines contestant: "6. Other castaway names my source remembers are Malcolm and Peter. My source does not remember the other names anymore."

- (7/29/12) After longtime spoiling pariah Jim Early/missyae had previously asserted that a "Peter Y" was a contestant, he eventually released Pete's full identity to his willing enablers at SurvivorFever.net: Peter Yurkowski of New Jersey. That's it. Although he does have a tweet gap during filming.

Who is Pete Yurkowski?

- From his facebook, he graduated from high school at Christian Brothers Academy (Lincroft, NJ) in 2006. He then received his bachelor's degree from Stevens Institute of Technology (Hoboken, NJ) in 2011, his degree was in "Engineering Management."

- As far as work in the whole year since he graduated, his facebook lists Wilhelmina Modeling Agency, and his likes include "Central Casting" and "New York City Auditions and Casting Calls." Hoorah.

- On the plus side, his twitter reveals he has far better taste in beer than your average reality TV contestant (or 24-year-old, for that matter). So there's that.