CBS and Viacom are back together for the first time in over a decade. Breaking down what it means for Survivor as the companies merge once again.
UPDATE: Since the announcement of the merger of Viacom and CBS to create ViacomCBS, MTV’s The Challenge has moved its airtime this Fall from Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET (competing against Survivor) to Wednesday at 9 p.m. That shows the corporation is already willing to make moves to benefit corporate synergy.
ORIGINAL: We’ve seen societies, democracies, concepts and ideologies form and dissipate since Survivor came on the air in 2000. The country of South Sudan didn’t even exist until after Heroes vs. Villains gave us the first (and currently only) two-time winner, showing the enduring legacy of the show. It has even survived multiple ownership groups, including the split and re-acquisition of Viacom.
TIME reports CBS and Viacom will merge once again, as the companies had split into two separate entities back in 2006. The new merger brings the content companies together to form ViacomCBS, although CBS will remain its own active division within the $30B-valued corporation while current CEO Joe Ianniello will become chairman and CEO of the CBS division.
What does this mean for Survivor fans? Viacom owns television channels such as MTV, which has its own slate of reality competition programming such as The Challenge and Fear Factor, the latter of which have seen Survivor players compete in a variety of daring tests. Jay Starrett was also on Ex on the Beach, and with CBS merging with Viacom, we could see a lot of crossover talent.
What remains a constant is that CBS will be run as a network television division that continues to push its digital offerings. Survivor will remain an integral part of CBS All Access, but hopefully, we start to see more behind-the-scenes or extended content that we do see with MTV reality shows. I would love to see more post-show talk shows like we saw with Andrea Boehlke and Dalton Ross years ago.
in short, nothing will change for Survivor, but we could start to see more crossover content and players from that show appearing on other ViacomCBS properties thanks to relaxed non-compete issues.