Beyond Survivor season 36, what’s the series’ lifespan on CBS?
In a way, it’s almost crazy to think that when Survivor season 36 next spring, we’ll have covered the show for 18 of the 36 seasons that it’s been on the air. We never thought we would make it to that threshold since so many TV shows do tend to come and go. CBS and the show’s executive producers — from Mark Burnett and Jeff Probst onward — deserve all of the credit in the world for finding ways to constantly re-innovate the game. While not all ideas work (Redemption Island, the Medallion of Power), there are others that have. The Vote Steal/Extra Vote twist has been fun, doing more three-tribe seasons has created extra unpredictability, and we enjoyed the Blood vs. Water concept far more than we initially thought that we would.
Survivor effectively has earned our trust to try new things. They do find ways to keep the basic concept of the game intact, while still putting new ideas out there to play around.
Yet, we do think entering season 35 that there may be a small bit of vulnerability with the franchise that needs to be addressed. Doing two returning-player seasons over the past four feels like a little too much, and these seasons don’t really bring in new viewers at this point. They basically equate to “if you liked these people, you’ll watch.” The beauty of newbie seasons is the opportunity to see the experience through fresh eyes — it’s more of a risk when it comes to casting, but if you have faith in your team, they often do deliver. Also, you get a chance to pick up some new fans, whether it be friends/family of new castaways or people deciding to finally give the show a try.
Returning-player fatigue may be present in some of the show’s recent ratings. Survivor: Game Changers averaged a 1.7 rating in the 18-49 demographic — in terms of live+same-day figures, that is the show’s worst performance to date. It was down from the 1.8 that Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X averaged, which was down from the 2.0 that Survivor: Kaoh Rong averaged. Survivor Cambodia: Second chance averaged a 2.1 rating in the fall of 2015, but there may have been more enthusiasm around returnees at that point given that was the first season featuring them in a while.
While Survivor has been fairly immune to the ratings drops of some other shows, there are still signs of decline. There are many extraneous reasons for it (rise in DVRs and streaming services included), but the results are still the results. Therefore, the show needs to continue to have new twists and reasons for people to dive into the show, and we’d argue that they need to market more towards adventure-seekers and people looking for a compelling reality TV story. Just as we feel like the show tends to fall too in love with its “you gotta make big moves” mantra, its advertisements often do the same. It needs to show (from a promotional standpoint) that there are other reasons to watch beyond great strategy. Those strategy fans, so long as the right cast is in place, will continue to watch no matter how you promote it. They don’t care as much about the previews, since they often contain red herrings in the first place.
We don’t try to get too nostalgic for earlier seasons, but the one thing we do miss from back then is that the show was a little more insular and less about the meta game/past seasons/how you will be perceived. Maybe those elements were there, but it wasn’t on the TV episodes that made air.
How many more seasons does Survivor have?
We feel like it’s a near-lock to make it to season 40, an incredible and pretty-shocking reality TV achievement, even if the ratings fall at their current pace. Beyond that, though, it may need to take a further look at its formula and figure out how to still usher in viewers at a time when cynical people may call the show “old” and wonder if it’s still on. We’d love to see it for another decade, provided that the people involved still want it to be made and the creativity is still present.
How long do you want to see Survivor on the air? Share in the comments, and head over here for further insight, including a discussion on season 35. (Photo: CBS.)