Despite optimism that Survivor would be able to film a season this summer, it was recently pulled from CBS’ fall lineup.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced Survivor to shutdown filming of season 41 and 42, both of which would have been filming this summer and airing in the fall and spring respectively.
Instead, despite signs that the show would be able to film their 41st season if the cast and crew spent two weeks in self-isolation while in Fiji, the show was pulled from CBS’ fall schedule and replaced by The Amazing Race.
Per Joe Otterson of Variety,
"According to an individual with knowledge of the production, CBS and officials in Fiji are still evaluating the best time to start production due to the heightened health and safety concerns involved."
This isn’t shocking. Healthy and safety are the most important parts of wanting to film the show and with the coronavirus running its course in America, it’d make sense for Fiji to be cautious about allowing production over there during these times.
There was hope that the show would be able to air this fall, but that’s not looking likely at this point.
Even if production is able to get up and running in Fiji by the end of the summer, it’d be a quick turnaround to have an entire season edited and ready to air by the late September premiere date. A delayed start could have been likely, but now it’s very possible that season 41 doesn’t air until the spring and that’s best case scenario honestly.
If season 41 is pushed back to the spring, maybe there would be a way to also air a new season over the summer of 2021 and then get the airings back on schedule.
No one is for sure what the future has in store as far as COVID-19 goes or when things might calm down, but what we do know now is that Survivor airing this fall is looking like a pipe dream at this point.