President Trump address to impact the Survivor 49 finale

Survivor 49's three-hour finale is about to be even longer thanks to a last-minute change to the broadcast schedule to accommodate a speech by President Donald Trump.

According to Deadline, President Trump's address is scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. EST on Wednesday, Dec. 17. Well, that's right at the one-hour mark of the Survivor 49 finale, which begins at 8 p.m. EST on CBS and Paramount+.

Instead of postponing the finale or making fans wait until after the address to begin the episode, CBS is choosing to pause the Survivor 49 finale right in the middle to broadcast the speech. Then, when the speech is over, the episode will continue after that point.

That will likely push the finale episode well over three hours. We have no idea how long the address will be, but even if it's just interrupted for a few minutes, the finale will not be over until around 11 p.m. EST.

“The Die Is Cast” – With the biggest reward of the season on the line, one member of a newly established alliance hopes to earn the extra sustenance to propel themselves further in the game. Castaways’ advantages come into focus as the days left in the game dwindle. Then, one alliance member must decide if they should flip against one of their own at a jaw-dropping tribal council, on SURVIVOR, Wednesday, Dec. 10 Jeff Probst serves as host and executive producer. Pictured: Steven Ramm. Photo: CBS

In the past with the new era Survivor finales, we usually find out the winner sometime around 7:30-7:45 EST, and then there's the celebration where these players get to talk about the game with Jeff Probst and eat some food. If this is a long speech, and again we have no idea what this speech is about or how long it will last, we could be waiting until closer to 11 p.m. or even midnight to find out who wins.

We're also expecting that we'll get that first look at Survivor 50 during the finale after the winner is revealed. Jeff always tees up a teaser or trailer for the next season, and it just so happens that Survivor 50, which premieres on Feb. 25, 2026, is going to be one of the show's biggest so far.

It's believed this address will only affect viewers in the Eastern and Central time zones. It should not affect the West Coast broadcast of the episode. It will be pretty interesting because, depending on how long the interruption is, it could mean that we don't know the winner of Survivor 49 until the West Coast airing begins at 8 p.m. PST.

This is obviously kind of a bummer for fans who have waited all season to find out the winner of Survivor 49. As far as we know, we don't know what the address is about. On the bright side, it could be worse and CBS could be pushing back the episode or delaying it even further. It's good that isn't happening. We will still find out the winner of Survivor 49 on Wednesday night.