Big Brother barely managed to film a season during the COVID-19 pandemic, but Survivor is not as lucky.
While many CBS scripted and unscripted series are heading back into production, Inside Survivor is reporting that the reality series may not be able to film its next cycle until the spring.
In turn, this means that fans would have to be without a fresh season of the series until next fall.
The hope was to film Season 41 this fall, but the Fijian government’s new COVID-19 safety measures, the country’s borders remain closed to non-citizens.
This would mean that it would be the longest wait between seasons in the history of the franchise, but that’s assuming production will actually get underway.
It’s possible CBS could opt to move to a new filming location, which is what fellow CBS reality series Love Island did this summer.
Instead of heading to Fiji, the series pivoted to film in a Las Vegas hotel, but something tells us Survivor would need to film in somewhere rural.
The alleged plan for now is to film Seasons 41 and 42 back-to-back so that the network has two seasons in the can.
However, these plans could change, and there’s the possibility that the series could be shelved until the pandemic does not pose as big of a threat as it does now.
“[It’s] going to be a little more complicated because we literally have to navigate some international waters,” CBS Entertainment President Kelly Kahl previously told Deadline.
CBS wanted a new season to air this fall, and was featured in an early draft of the network’s fall schedule, but it was announced in July that it was officially bumped to later in the season.
S.W.A.T. was subsequently added to the fall schedule in its place.
There is a lot of uncertainty surrounding Survivor at the moment, and only time will tell whether it will be able to return.
Remember you can watch Survivor online right here via TV Fanatic.
Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.