It’s going to be a long night for Survivor fans as yet another episode is about to be interrupted by a presidential address.
No, this is not an April Fools joke, though I certainly wish it was. Late on March 31, President Donald Trump’s office announced that President Trump would be going live on April 1 at 9 p.m. ET to address the nation about the war in Iran. As is always the case when a sitting president goes live to address the nation, CBS will be bringing viewers special coverage of President Trump’s April 1 address, which is going to directly impact tonight’s Survivor episode.
Survivor will begin at its usual time, and the first hour of the episode will air without interruption. However, CBS will break in with a special report at the top of the hour at 9 p.m. ET for President Trump’s live primetime address to the nation with CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil anchoring the coverage for CBS.
At the moment, CBS has carved out 20 minutes for President Trump’s address, but there is always the chance it could run long, so we’ll have to see if 20 minutes proves to be enough time. Should the address indeed wrap within those 20 minutes, Survivor’s new episode will resume at 9:20 p.m. ET, following the 20-minute interruption in the episode to bring viewers coverage of President Trump’s address.
As is often the case, this scheduling shift will only impact fans on the East Coast in Eastern and Central time zones. Those on the West Coast will not see the April 1 episode of Survivor interrupted. Coverage of President Trump's address will air live on the West Coast at 6 p.m. PT and therefore not impact the primetime schedule.
While the bad news is that President Trump’s address will force CBS to interrupt tonight’s new Survivor, the network did spring some unexpected good news on viewers when announcing its CBS News coverage. Tonight’s episode will be a special two-hour episode of the show rather than a standard 90-minute episode!
That’s right, we’re getting a two-hour episode tonight, which means the second half of the episode tonight will wrap around 10:20 p.m. following the brief interruption for President Trump’s address! And this extended episode could not be coming at a better time.
Tonight’s episode, “The Blood Moon,” will see the tribes merging in a twist that is sure to throw some unexpected curveballs our way. Merging with 17 players still in the game is unheard of for the show, and bringing these players together is sure to lead to a lot of drama and scheming!
Not only will we get to see the 17 remaining players coming together, but it seems the show is about to introduce yet another new advantage, which has the power to shake up the game. We’re certain some random celebrity will likely be involved, but let’s just hope this one won’t be quite as over-the-top as the Zac Brown mess we had to endure.
It’s going to be an exciting episode, and it definitely is not ideal that the episode will be interrupted halfway through for President Trump’s address, but at this point Survivor fans are starting to get used to it. After all, it was just a few months back that the Survivor 49 finale was interrupted due to a primetime address. But Survivor fans on the East Coast will persist, and we can always use that 20 minutes to refill our drinks and grab some more snacks as we wait for the second part of the two-hour episode to air!