Survivor is delaying production on seasons 41 and 42 amid growing concerns about the coronavirus, as first reported by Entertainment Weekly.
While Winners At War is currently airing on CBS, the Survivor production team was preparing to begin filming its 41st season in Fiji’s Mamanuca Islands beginning on March 24. However, host and executive producer Jeff Probst recently confirmed that production will be postponed due to the widespread of coronavirus, which was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization.
While filming was initially pushed back until mid-May, that time-table is now also in question. Inside Survivor can report that all production crew who were already in Fiji have now been sent home. Meanwhile, trusted spoiler source SurvivorFan37 reports that production on US Survivor has been shut down indefinitely.
Since 2009, Survivor has filmed two seasons back-to-back in the same location, with the first season in the cycle usually shooting between March-May and the second from May-July. The suspension of production means that both seasons will now be delayed until further notice.
This news comes after Fiji’s Prime Minister, Frank Bainimarama, confirmed the third case of COVID-19 in the country. With Survivor’s crew made up of hundreds of people from all over the world, the show and the Fijian government didn’t want to take the risk of spreading the infection amongst crew staff, cast members, and local residents.
“Due to the growing short-term uncertainty surrounding the global spread of COVID-19 and the corresponding desire for the continued well-being of our amazing crew, we have decided to push back our start date for Survivor season 41,” Probst wrote in a letter sent to production staff earlier this month.
“This situation is unprecedented and we are learning more information every day. It is out of concern for the well-being of all of you that we have taken this step. Our intention is to begin production after the S40 live show. Therefore, subject to new information, our new planned start date for production would be on or about May 19, 2020. Our intention is to still shoot both seasons 41 and 42.”
Of course, with the recent news, the likelihood of production resuming in May is slim to none. What this means for seasons 41 and 42 remains unclear. In the past, Survivor did use to film later in the year on a late May to early September schedule, covering a two-season cycle. So it’s theoretically possible that season 41 could still be filmed for a late September premiere, but that would depend on the state of the pandemic which is changing daily.
As recently reported by Inside Survivor, casting wrapped for seasons 41 and 42 in early March. However, we have learned there has been a lot of behind-the-scenes panic regarding this situation with the coronavirus, with lots of swapping and changing of cast members between the two seasons.
The postponing of Survivor production follows the recent news of CBS suspending production of The Amazing Race midway through filming.
Stay tuned to Inside Survivor for further updates.
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[…] postponement follows Survivor US’s decision to delay its shooting of season 41 until mid-May. Both versions of the hit international reality-show film in […]
Time to develop another habit, then.
Sounds like (the beginning of) the end of Survivor (but, for a change, not due to bad production moves)….
[…] of seasons 41 and 42 in Fiji. While the plan initially was to postpone filming until May 19th, Inside Survivor recently learned that all crew already on location were sent home and production has been put on hold […]
They would need to figure this out soon. The postponement to May 19 is pretty much right around the corner & will be here before they/we know it (but it seems like it’s been forever already). With all the crew home they’d need to get (back) on-site & get ready for the cast to come in to film. To that end, what is unknown is if the May 19 date is the crew return date or the cast arrival date (meaning the crew would need to be there prior to that). I get health concerns are an issue but they also shouldn’t be making last minute decisions so they need to figure out sooner rather than later how to proceed.
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[…] in the can (it was filmed in 2018), Survivor has yet to begin production on its 41st season after filming was postponed back in March. Initially, filming in Fiji was rescheduled for May 19, but as the spread of the […]
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