Survivor’s Jeff Probst Confirms Controversial Shortened Seasons Are Here to Stay

Survivor has made quite a few changes in what has been dubbed the “New Era” of the game, but not quite as talked-about as the shortened seasons for the players. After Season 40’s Winners at War, and a serious pandemic disruption, Survivor changed things up to film entire seasons in 26 days, rather than the traditional 39 days the game had been to that point. This has put a faster pace on the players each season, but a lot of fans and former players think it has made the game itself easier.

Whether you like the shorter seasons or not, it appears they’re here to stay. Speaking on the latest episode of the On Fire with Jeff Probst podcast, the host and showrunner of Survivor talked at length about the 26-day shoots — and why they’re not going anywhere.

“Let’s address the 39-day thing, because there’s usually two points of contention when it comes to 39 days, and I’ll address both of them,” Probst said on the show. “Fans simply don’t want the game to change. They want Survivor to stay the same. I totally understand their point of view. In their mind, Survivor is 39 days… So they thing that, with the exception of COVID, which I’m sure we get a pass for, that we should have and still could do back to 39 days… The second part is difficult, 26 days simply can’t be punishing enough because it’s 13 fewer days. ‘Do the math, Probst! The new era version of Survivor is clearly easier!”

Probst went on to talk about the origins of the new 26-day seasons and why he believes the format is actually better for the game.

“How we landed at 26 days to begin with was COVID,” he explained. “The requirements of starting with a 14-day quarantine and then doing two 39-day seasons back-to-back and not being able to ever leave the island for anything once we started — we just couldn’t do it. So we had to get creative. We landed at 26 days.”

“There were people in my inner circle saying, ‘You are going to destroy the franchise because you won’t have enough good story content if you reduce your shoot by a third,’” he added. “We considered everyone’s opinion; we felt it would still work.

“As for the difficulty, I think it’s pretty clear even from just this season, if anything, the new era — brace yourself, old time players — is more difficult. Because the physical demands of surviving with very, very little — or for some players, no food — is extremely punishing and it begins to break you down mentally. You can’t think, you can’t sleep, you can’t trust. That leads to the emotional breakdown, which can be brutal.”

The host ultimately concluded that there is no plan to go back to the 39-day format any time in the near future. He doesn’t rule it out if it makes more sense for the show, but that doesn’t appear to be on the table.

“The looming question is, ‘Would you ever go back to 29 days?’ We’ll never say never,” Probst admitted. “And I mean that we’re always open to where the game takes us as much as where we take the game, but for the time being, 26 days is the game. And I get it: If somebody else were sitting in this seat, they might have a very different decision. Even people on our own team, I think there’s some of them that kind of wish we were at 39 days. So it’s not a right or wrong, it’s just, this is what we’re doing.”