A new season of Survivor has officially begun and, based on the season premiere, we’re in for another incredible season ahead. Don’t worry, there aren’t any spoilers about the Survivor 48 premiere in this piece which you need to worry about dodging, after all, there are still fans who haven’t had the chance to watch the premiere, and the last thing we want to spoil the season opener for anyone!
Survivor 48 kicked off with a supersized two-hour premiere event which was a perfect fit for the season opener which always has plenty of content as we meet the newest players and officially kick off the game. The two-hour format always works nicely for the opening hour and it was of little surprise that CBS chose to again opt for an extended premiere event; however, this does mean that season 48 episodes are about to get a bit shorter starting next week.
Beginning with the second episode of the season, airing on March 6, CBS will be reducing the runtime for the episodes by 30 minutes with the season settling into its normal 90-minute episode format for the next several weeks. New episodes will still kick off at 8 p.m. ET, but now will wrap at 9:30 p.m. and serve as the lead-in to new episodes of The Amazing Race, which kicks off its newest season on March 6.
New episodes of Survivor and The Amazing Race will hold down Wednesday night for CBS for the remainder of the 2024-2025 season and we should see the seasons airing without much interruption. While many CBS shows tend to take random breaks in their seasons, this is not the case for Survivor which typically runs uninterrupted during its spring run with new episodes with Survivor 46 airing for 13 straight weeks without any break in the season.
What is going to be interesting is to see how CBS might choose to approach the end of the season. In many years, CBS kicks off the season with an extended episode and then ends the season with a longer three-hour finale event. This was the case with the show’s last spring cycle with Survivor 46 ending with a three-hour finale; however, CBS chose to shake things up with Survivor 47.
Rather than concluding with a three-hour finale, Survivor 47 ended with a super-sized two-part finale with the final two episodes of the season each landing a 2-hour runtime. This seemed to work pretty well for the season and was generally well-received by fans, so there is a chance that CBS might try this approach again with the Survivor 48 finale.
What could complicate things is that Survivor 48 will be airing opposite The Amazing Race which also is airing 90-miniute episodes this season, which could make it harder for CBS to work in the 2-part two-hour finale structure for season 48. Still, there is always a chance it could look to find a way to make that formatting work and we'll know for sure what the plan might be for the season 48 finale as we get closer to May and the finale's arrival.