A Couple of Hit CBS Shows Moving to 90-Minute Weekly Episodes
CBS released its planned fall TV schedule on Wednesday, showing off what its updated primetime slate will look like. There are some new shows mixed with fan-favorite hits, but there are a lot of looming questions about the new lineup because of the ongoing Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike. Depending on how long the writers' strike continues, new episodes of fall TV shows could be affected. CBS is preparing for that situation by extending the runtimes of a couple of its most popular, non-scripted shows.
As part of the fall schedule rollout, CBS announced that Wednesday nights will now consist of supersized episodes of Survivor and The Amazing Race. The long-running reality competition shows are unsurprisingly coming back for new seasons and have aired extended episodes on occasion in the past. For the new seasons, each of the shows will be airing 90-minute episodes instead of the usual 60-minute episodes.
The Amazing Race Season 35 has already been filmed and will be airing in the fall. Survivor will be airing its 45th season, which is currently in production in Fiji.
Big Survivor Change Sticking Around for New Seasons
After the Winners at War competition in Season 40, Survivor entered a "new era" of the series. This brought a lot of changes to the framework of the game. Some of them won't be sticking around, like the controversial hourglass twist. Others, however, are here to stay. According to host and producer Jeff Probst, the new merge format — which includes a competition for players to "earn" their place on the merged tribe — is going to be a permanent fixture.
"The most important idea of the new merge is that you must earn it," Probst told EW. "That's one of the core principles of this new era of Survivor. In the past you "made" the merge, but now you "earn" the merge. It's the same for every layer of the game. There are very few rewards, there are penalties for losing, and there is an emphasis on earning it every step of the way. So yes, count on this being the new merge moving forward."