Survivor 50 premiere is guaranteed to make history

Survivor 50 is less than one week away, and the landmark season has already made Survivor history in more ways than one.

We all know by now that the Survivor 50 cast is the biggest in the show's history by four players. By the time the Survivor 50 premiere airs on CBS at 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Feb. 25, the episode will break another show record.

The Survivor 50 premiere is the longest premiere in Survivor history

It's true; the Survivor 50: In the Hands of the Fans premiere, which is fittingly titled "Epic Party," will air from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Feb. 25. That will be the longest season premiere in the show's history.

After looking through the first 49 seasons of the show, I learned that there's never been a three-hour premiere of Survivor. Not once in the 49 seasons have fans got an extended look to start the game.

By now, fans are used to the Survivor finales running for three hours, but historically, those episodes have included some kind of reunion show, whether it's out on the island like the new era or the live studio reunion in Los Angeles or New York City.

It's going to be very interesting to see just how the three-hour premiere works. Dalton Ross of Entertainment Weekly, who was out in Fiji for the taping of the start of season 50, revealed that the season premiere is basically the first two episodes of the season.

Honestly, that raises more questions than it answers for me. Does that mean we'll see two immunity challenges and Tribal Councils? Will we see two players voted out in the first episode? Could we see more players voted out?

We have a lot of players to eliminate before the Survivor 50 finale, which will air on Wednesday, May 20. We should have 13 episodes, including the premiere and finale this season. That also assumes that this will be the only "episode" of the season that's three hours long. Could CBS stack even more episodes back to back in the middle of the season? And, if you treat the premiere as a two-part episode as Ross mentions, that basically means we'll see 14 episodes this season, which would tie Survivor 48 as the longest season in a very long time. And, that season featured a two-part finale.

So, it's going to be interesting to see how Jeff Probst and co. handle a season with this many big players.

The premiere should give fans a chance to check in with all 24 returning players

The one issue I see heading into Survivor 50 is the big cast, and it's not that I care about how the show handles Tribal Council, challenges, or eliminating players. To me, it's about fans waiting so long to see some of these players play Survivor again and then not giving those players enough screentime.

It's hard enough during a normal Survivor season to get to know these players. For Survivor 49, Sophie Segreti was one of the biggest threats in the game after the merge, but we barely saw her in the early part of the game because her tribe was chill and was winning.

Will that happen in Survivor 50? If I don't get to see Aubry Bracco, Cirie Fields, or Mike White because they're on a good tribe, I will not be happy as a fan, you know? So, that's the biggest issue.

Obviously, making the premiere longer is a big win for catching up with everyone and giving each player a chance to reintroduce themselves to fans.

Survivor 50's long premiere might turn some fans off

On the flipside of that, I do see the three-hour Survivor 50 premiere as a negative, too. People are busy. They have families, work, activities, hobbies, and just life things happening. Not everyone has three hours to devote to a season of a reality TV show in the middle of the week.

I want everyone to watch Survivor because it's such a great show, but when I try to do my sales pitch to friends, family, and colleagues, most of them are not interested in a three-hour barrier of entry to a reality show. They just aren't. So, I do think that could be an issue for the show getting some of those old fans to catch back up and start watching Survivor 50 if they haven't been watching the show for a while.

It's great that the other episodes will likely be 90 minutes after the premiere and before the finale. That makes things a little bit easier, but it's still a challenge if the bar is pretty high to start.

We'll be covering Survivor 50 all season long! Check back for more news about the new season, premiering Wednesday, Feb. 25, at 8 p.m. ET on CBS and Paramount+.