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Survivor cast reveal: Detailing every reveal and Survivor premiere date in the show’s history

ByDaniel George|
CBS
CBS

What does the length of the time between a Survivor cast reveal and the premiere say about a season’s quality? Very little, but now we have the full history.

Spurned by the historically late cast reveal for Survivor: Island of the Idols, we had taken a look at the entire history of Survivor cast reveals and the effect they have on the preseason and getting to know the personalities of the players. Our research combined the difficulties of finding internet reports from as early as the year 2000 with the fun of how castaways were revealed over the years.

The very first season was such a spectacle that announcing the cast was a moment of itself as part of the grand marketing scheme. 16 players were announced as of the filming of the premiere, as even CBS had no idea what was in store for them at the time. That gave us the longest “preseason” in the show’s history, although we knew so little of the castaways before the show carried steam.

Here’s a look at the Survivor cast reveal dates in comparison with each season’s premiere, outlining how many days the preseason has been throughout the show’s history:

As you can see in the majority of the post-Fiji move-in seasons, the preseasons have been getting shorter and shorter, with three seasons in a row of 21 days or fewer. As long as we get to know all of the castaways in the premieres with 90+ minute episodes, that’s fine by us!

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