[JTM45]

I think it was more of a case of him being the show's producers favourite. Each year they seem to interfere more with the happenings and events in the show in an attempt to create more drama but thankfully a lot of the viewers see straight through it.
The trend with reality competition type shows these days seems to be that they think that they have to feature returning players/competitors instead of giving us a completely fresh batch each year.
I'd rather see a completely new set of competitors every time personally. Everyone is on an equal footing that way.