A new season of Survivor has finally arrived and this season is certainly like no other season that has come before it! For the milestone 50th season, Survivor has rounded up an all-star cast comprised of players from over the years including some of the best players to have ever played the game.
To kick off the historic season, CBS is making history with an extended three-hour season premiere event! That’s right, the season 50 premiere will be three hours which is far longer than the average episode of the show – and even the average season premiere. Typically, CBS will kick off the new season of Survivor with a two-hour premiere, but they’re going big with season 50.
This is the first time ever CBS is kicking off a new season of Survivor with a three-hour episode, making it the longest-ever premiere in the show’s history. It makes sense to go big for the season 50 premiere as it’ll give CBS plenty of time to spotlight the cast and loop newer fans in on their legacies in the game as the season kicks off and the game officially begins leading to the first elimination of the season.
It seems only fitting that the Survivor 50 premiere is making history with an extended premiere which is sure to fly by in the blink of an eye. But don’t get too used to the extended episode format!
After the season premiere, Survivor 50 episodes will return to their standard 90-minute episode format. The 90-minute format has worked incredibly well for Survivor in recent years since CBS adapted the longer-episode format. The longer episode structure allows the editing team to show more of the tribe dynamics, challenges, and tribal council, rather than trying to condense the action into a single 60-minute episode.
CBS then usually closes out the season with a three-hour season finale which brings the season to a close and includes a reunion special with the full cast. With this being the 50th season, there is a chance that CBS could throw in a special extended episode somewhere along the way, but the expectation is that the season premiere and season finale are the only two episodes which will be over 90 minutes.
Should this indeed be the case, here are the expected runtimes runtimes for the season’s episodes:
- Survivor 50 premiere: 3 hours
- Survivor 50 episode 2: 90 minutes
- Survivor 50 episode 3: 90 minutes
- Survivor 50 episode 4: 90 minutes
- Survivor 50 episode 5: 90 minutes
- Survivor 50 episode 6: 90 minutes
- Survivor 50 episode 7: 90 minutes
- Survivor 50 episode 8: 90 minutes
- Survivor 50 episode 9: 90 minutes
- Survivor 50 episode 10: 90 minutes
- Survivor 50 episode 11: 90 minutes
- Survivor 50 episode 12: 90 minutes
- Survivor 50 season finale: 3 hours
Don't miss new episodes of Survivor Wednesdays at 8/7c on CBS, and streaming on Paramount+ the following day.