As the milestone 50th season of “Survivor” barrels towards its epic finale, set to air on Wednesday, May 20, CBS is already hard at work filming Season 51 in Fiji’s Mamanuca Islands.
Production on the new installment reportedly began on Saturday, April 18, meaning that as of today – Monday, April 27 – a brand new batch of castaways are already 10 days deep into the 26-day-long reality competition.
While longtime fans previously expressed concern that the franchise would revert to its typical “New Era” format after “50” – 18 first-time players spread evenly across three starting tribes – early rumors now suggest that, for the first time since Season 40’s “Winners at War,” “Survivor” will kick off Season 51 with 20 new castaways split into two tribes of 10 players each.
‘Survivor’ Insider Reveals Return of Two-Tribe Format & 20-Player Cast
Photo By: Timothy Kuratek ©2018 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.News of the format change, which more closely reflects the show’s “old-school” seasons, comes to fans from “Redmond” – a reputable, independent “Survivor” journalist and the mind behind the InsideSurvivor social media accounts.
While Redmond, whose real name is Martin Holmes, supposedly has a “lot” of inside connections with the show’s production team, he’s very judicious when it comes to the information he “leaks” to the public ahead of time.
“Make no mistake,” one fan wrote of Redmond on Reddit. “He can get full boot-lists no problem, but chooses to keep those from the public out of respect for people who want to remain unspoiled. He’s a good guy doing good work for the ‘Survivor’ fan community.”
Most recently, his InsideSurvivor page revealed that the franchise would kick off its upcoming 51st season by returning to its tried-and-true two-tribe format, as well as increasing its previous “New Era” 18-person cast size to a slightly larger 20-person cast for the upcoming installment.
That Means ‘Disaster’ Tribes Could Be a Thing of the Past
CBSThe “New Era” three-tribe format has been a thorn in the side of “Survivor” fans for a while now, given that, more often than not, it results in the weakest tribe attending Tribal Council over and over again in the early days of the game.
So-called “disaster tribes” have been a staple of more than half of the seasons that’ve aired since the “New Era” began with Season 41 in 2021, decimating tribes like Ua (Season 41), Lulu (Season 45), Yanu (Season 46), Vula (Season 48) and, most recently, the Kele Tribe on Season 49.
With just six castaways per tribe, alongside the stipulation that the losing tribe also gets their flint taken away ahead of attending Tribal Council, a stumble in the first Immunity Challenge of the season can spell, well, “disaster,” for New Era tribes.
A switch back to two 10-player tribes will, hopefully, remedy this problem, allowing castaways the opportunity to rally after voting out one of their own.
‘Survivor’ Fans React to Season 51 Formatting Rumors
“OMG please be true,” commented one “Survivor” fan under an Instagram post announcing the Season 51 rumor, while another added, “Yes please keep it this way forever & when we got to a tribe switch no more 3 tribes.”
While some fans celebrated the “back to basics” format change as a “dream come true,” others expressed interest in seeing a more dramatic return to form.
“Bring back 39 days next,” wrote one fan, calling on CBS to step away from the 26-day format that was introduced as part of the “New Era” on Season 41.
Another expressed the widespread opinion that “Survivor” should film in a location other than Fiji for future installments. The last time CBS filmed a season outside of the Mamanuca archipelago was when “Survivor: Kaoh Rong” was filmed in Cambodia in 2015.
Despite outcry from fans, however, it’s unlikely that “Survivor” will change location, or its now-standard 26-day filming period anytime soon, especially considering the show’s longstanding relationship with the Fijian government and the sheer amount of money the production saves by reusing the same filming grounds season after season.
