Survivor fans will get a chance to influence the game for the milestone 50th season, so does that mean they’ll get an opportunity to bring back the traditional 39-day format? You shouldn’t get your hopes up.
This week, Survivor host and showrunner Jeff Probst revealed the theme for Survivor 50 as In The Hands of the Fans, meaning throughout the airing of Survivor 48, viewers can vote on certain format elements for the 50th season. This covers things like whether the final four fire-making challenge stays, if the live reunion will return, and if idols will be included.
The full list of voting categories has yet to be revealed, but one thing fans won’t be able to decide is the game’s length. Speaking with Entertainment Weekly‘s Dalton Ross, Probst was asked whether the return of 39 days is on the table for a potential voting option.
“No,” Probst answered, shutting it down immediately. “It’s simply a production situation. We like this game and I can tell you that even if we wanted to, we already have our leases, our land agreements with Mana Island (in Fiji). 39 days isn’t even an option.”
Survivor switched to a 26-day format for its 41st season, partly due to the COVID-19 protocols. The show has stuck to 26 days ever since.
One thing Probst seemed more open to was fans voting on how he delivers the final votes. In the early years, the Emmy-winning host would pull off elaborate stunts as he returned to the U.S. to unveil the winner, including riding a jetski in the Hudson River.
“I mean, that’s a possible option. It’s definitely been on a list,” Probst said. “Not saying it’ll make it because I’m not saying we have any great ideas for how we would do it, but all the things you’re hitting on are really exciting to me because you have an array like picking a challenge, final two or final three, marooning, something silly about delivering the votes — you’re really hitting at the core of what we want it to be.”
He continued, “It’s not just if there’s an idol in play on episode 2 or not. It’s the whole idea of Survivor and everything that goes into the world. So I’m taking all these notes. Some of them we may have, some of them might be new to me.”
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39!!! días