Could Survivor Return if it is Cancelled?

While it is widely believed that there will be more Survivor after this pandemic is over (as the 41^st season is supposedly already cast), but as we go through possibly the longest hiatus of this show, I wondered if the possibility of this getting cancelled was an option and if so, could it come back?

I still don’t think that we have to worry about this as much now, but even if the show were to end, would it come back in the future? I would think that it would at some point. But then the question would become just how long this would be gone from the airwaves.

You wouldn’t think that a show as big as Survivor would be in danger of airing. Isn’t it in the top 50 every season? But the ratings of it do get lower and lower every season. It might be a bit hard to tell since they now put both seasons together instead of just one by itself. But the lowering ratings being a constant can’t be good. But then you learn that it does better in ratings than a lot of scripted shows do, which says a lot about it. (Reality shows aren’t often better than scripted ones in terms of ratings.)

But then this leads into a new problem. What if when Survivor returns, it returns with a whimper? What if no one watches anymore and it doesn’t stay back for long? Or what if the show never returns? Could the planned hiatus last even longer to the point of not knowing if the show will return? Some fans of this show will easily flock to others, but this will make you wonder, will they flock back? And what are people like Rob Cesternino supposed to do with their livelihoods? They can’t do many podcasts about Survivor with no Survivor to podcast about. And while there are past seasons they can cover, if this show isn’t coming back, they’ll have to find something else to do instead.

Honestly, I’m not sure that if Survivor were cancelled that it would return. It probably already causes some irritation for CBS by not airing consistently throughout the year. They have to deal with enough schedule changes outside of this that it may be better off without this show.

But if CBS doesn’t want it, would another network? It is rare but not unheard of for a reality show to switch networks. (Tons of shows do, but these are normally only scripted shows that this happens with.) You’d think that other networks might care or be interested in it. But which ones? And since I don’t have cable or satellite, then this blog would probably not be able to cover these new seasons until they are on DVD, if I even bother with getting them at all. Would I still do this blog at all?

Honestly, though, you’d think that if this should could survive the chaos of 9/11 relatively unscathed, then it would survive a pandemic. But this is worse and even global. How soon would it be until we have a group of people ready to go to a remote place to spend time like this again?

I think that if anything were to come back after cancellation, it would be this show. Who knows just how long we would be without a new season? It could be on a different network, with a different host, or both. There could be plenty of other changes that happen with it as well. We wouldn’t know just how long a truly cancelled Survivor would be gone or if it will even come back. But I am hopeful that if worst comes to worst, then this show will not be gone forever. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.