Last night at 8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT, Wednesday, March 9th, on the CBS Television Network, in a two-hour premiere, the Emmy Award-winningSurvivorreturned for its 42nd season with 18 new castaways who will compete against each other for $1 million. Competing for the cash-money prize are Lydia Meredith, Rocksroy Bailey, Marya Sherron, Jonathan Young, Mike Turner, Drea Wheeler, Romeo Escobar, Lindsay Dolashewich, Hai Giang, Chanelle Howell, Zach Wurtenberger, Tori Meehan, Daniel Strunk, Maryanne Oketch, Jackson Fox, Jenny Kim, Omar Zaheer, and Swati Goel. After the changes made in Season 41 ofSurvivor, which brought about some of the most shocking changes in the game’s history, hostJeff Probstis making those changes permanent and even turning up the heat!
CBS billed Season 42 as the “most dangerous version ofSurvivorever seen,” and everyone got the message in the bottle but the castaways themselves, who didn’t learn about the changes until their first day filming (the premiere episode is now available). One major change that started at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic is the shortened length of the game (26 days vs. 39 days), leading to a back-to-back filming schedule for Season 41 and 42 and allowing the producers to keep Season 42’s castaways in the dark about the changes.
However, Probst said the shortened structure may be more permanent. “The decision to change the game to 26 days came from the fact that we couldn’t leave our bubble,” he toldEntertainment Weekly. “So if we wanted to shoot two seasons, we had to do it back to back. For us to shoot two seasons of 39 days, back to back, along with our 14-day quarantine, would have meant nearly 100 days, and that was simply too long.”
Season 42 Will Be Harder than Season 41
Since the game is now almost two weeks shorter, the show’s creators decided to make it harder and because Season 42 was filmed right after Season 41, the new contestants have no idea what changes were made last season. And there were a lot of them!
First off, the tribes had to earn essentials and supplies from day one. In Season 41 and now 42, the castaways have to earn survival basics, including rice and flint, compared to past seasons where the tribes were provided with these resources at the beginning. And for viewers who watched last night’s premiere already saw how the show handled Jackson Fox’s medical issue, who was the first openly transgender contestant, it’s interesting to think about how things would have gone for him with the survival essentials usually provided to the castaways.
The more challenging format also brings harsher penalties for losing challenges. For example, a team can win some supplies one day but have it taken away by the other team the next day. Under this new challenge structure, castaways may go days without eating, and in Season 41, they did. Other new features were the shot in the dark, phrases activating idols, and changes in how frequently people’s votes at tribal council were at risk.
In a preview forSurvivorSeason 42, Probst said, “We’re going to continue to lean into everything we did in 41, but we’re going to change certain variables to see if it changes their decision-making process.”
