Coronavirus Update: ‘Survivor’ Reportedly Delays Season 41 Due to Pandemic

Survivor fans might be in for an extra wait in advance of the series’ 41st season. According to Entertainment Weekly, Survivor has delayed production on the series due to the ongoing crisis surrounding the coronavirus. The 41st season was set to begin filming on March 24th in the Mamanuca Islands in Fiji, but EW has reported that host and executive producer Jeff Probst informed crew members in a letter on Wednesday that production on the show would have to be pushed back until at least May because of the coronavirus.

Because of this delay for Season 41, this also means that Season 42, which was scheduled to begin filming on May 24, will also be postponed, too. EW reported that if there are no further delays to Survivor’s filming schedule, the next two seasons will likely air in September 2020 (for Season 41) and February 2021 (for Season 42) as originally scheduled.

Fiji has yet to report any cases of the coronavirus (as of Wednesday, March 11), but the show is taking a proactive stance against this global health crisis. It was reported that the crew for Survivor hails from countries all around the world and that they did not want to put anyone involved in the show at risk of contracting the virus.

EW published a copy of Probst’s letter to the crew, which explained why Season 41 would have to be delayed.

“Due to the growing short-term uncertainty surrounding the global spread of COVID-19 and the corresponding desire for the continued well-being of our amazing crew, we have decided to push back our start date for Survivor season 41,” Probst’s letter began. “Though Fiji has no reported cases and is beautifully remote, our crew numbers over 400 and are flying in from over 20 different countries, creating a need for more time to fully analyze and create our new production safety plan.”

“This situation is unprecedented and we are learning more information every day. It is out of concern for the well-being of all of you that we have taken this step,” he continued. “Our intention is to begin production after the S40 live show. Therefore, subject to new information, our new planned start date for production would be on or about May 19th, 2020. Our intention is to still to shoot both seasons 41 and 42.”

“We know many of you will have questions and we will start a communication chain to keep everybody up to date,” Probst continued to explain. “We are the most experienced international television team in the world and for 20 years we have calmly and successfully managed a variety of production issues. We will navigate this one the same way. Thank you for understanding our need for this extra time to create our plan.”