Survivor 43, future seasons will retain 26-day length

We don’t think that it is any major surprise to anyone out there, but Survivor 43 is going to run for 26 days. Not only that, but we can say the same thing for seasons moving forward.

So what is the reason for this? Well, there are two different answers to this: There’s the one that Jeff Probst gives, and then there is the one we suspect. Let’s start with what Probst had to say on the subject to Entertainment Weekly: “Yes, the 26-day season is here to stay. This is our new game, and we are very excited about the future.”

As for our suspected reason, that has more to do with budget. It’s just fundamentally cheaper to have people out there for only 26 days as opposed to 39. We of course still have questions as to whether it really saves that much money, especially since the Australian version of the show (a country with a far smaller total viewership, mind you) has been able to do multiple seasons of longer than 50 days. Of course, we also recognize that Australia is much closer to its filming location than the US version is. All this stuff is complicated.

It is true that fundamentally, most of the same game can be played in 26 days. Consider us a purist, but there is always going to be something that we prefer and enjoy about the old-school game. You know, getting to see people develop those bushy beards over more than a month! Our preferences don’t matter all that much, though; we do also think that if there’s another all-star season in the future, it is probably easier to convince people to come back for that shorter window of time.

Length of the season aside, we’re excited to see Survivor 43 arrive on CBS next week — also, let’s celebrate that the controversial Do or Die twist is officially no more.

What do you think about Survivor 43 retaining the same 26-day length that we’ve seen in the past?

Be sure to share right now in the attached comments! Once you do just that, be sure to come back for some other updates. (Photo: CBS.)