Survivor season 40 update: Filming in Fiji has officially begun

Mark it down on your calendars; May 22, 2019, is when Survivor season 40 has begun properly filming the 20th-anniversary game of games.

Though Survivor: Edge of Extinction is over and a new champion has been crowned, it’s hard not to be itching for new Survivor content as we embrace for the long, cold, dreary offseason that is the summer months without the show. Will we catch up on Big Brother for the first week? Yes, but as always, we’ll leave full-time coverage duties to our friends at Inside the BB House.

Many are already clamoring for details about Survivor: Island of the Idols; the 39th season of the show set to air this September. Boston Rob and Sandra are back again, with the old dogs trying to teach tricks to the new dogs entering the game for the very first time. Will there be Hidden Immunity Idols placed within those gigantic heads? Only time will tell.

However, something peculiar about the filming schedule of Survivor is that they film seasons before and after even-numbered entries air on television. As Entertainment Weekly editor Dalton Ross gloriously exclaimed on Twitter late last night (earlier today in Fijian time), May 22, 2019, marks the beginning of Survivor season 40.

Right now, anywhere between 18 and 20 players are out in Fiji, embarking on a 39-day journey that will change their lives forever. Regardless of if it’s newbies out there or veterans returning to the game for the second, third, fourth or even fifth time, each Survivor season takes a lot out of the players, cementing different layers of their legacies.

It’s a remarkable journey that, since season 33, has remained in the same series of Fijian islands for the course of 39-day spats. This means that the game will end on Saturday, June 29, with the players returning home to the United States in time for Independence Day. Great news for World’s Apart’s Murica tribe!