‘Survivor’ Host Jeff Probst Asks Twitter If Episodes Should Last Longer

Season 38 of Survivor kicked off last week. While the quality of a TV series isn’t measured by episode length and most episodes are traditionally either 30 minutes or an hour long (depending on the show), many Survivor fans took issue with the Edge of Extinction premiere running on the shorter side of the spectrum.

With just an hour of air time, fans were forced to learn all about the castaways while watching the first immunity challenge and tribal council unfold.

According to Jeff Probst, the Survivor gods acknowledged the outcries from fans of the series. In fact, Probst took to Twitter a few days ago to poll his 475,000 followers on whether episodes of the CBS reality show should be two hours long instead of one.

“Question: I hear you on wanting a longer premiere! Is that a shared desire? For example, if we had occasional 2-hour episodes would you watch? Or is 2 hours too long, and too late for kids? Let me know! We listen,” Jeff asked in his tweet.

Posted just four days ago, fans of Survivor wasted no time sharing their thoughts on longer episodes as the tweet accumulated over 12,000 likes, 260 retweets, and just shy of 6,500 comments.

The overwhelming majority agreed with the initial outcry that the premiere of Season 38 simply wasn’t long enough to give the audience all of the information they needed.

Some fans jested they would watch Survivor episodes of any length because they loved the show and couldn’t get enough of it. Others agreed the premiere, finale, and merger episodes should all be two hours long.

“The David versus Goliath premiere was so fantastic, even without a tribal council, because the longer episode gave us an insight into every person on the fantastic cast. It never felt middling, and set us up for the rest of a great season! More of that please,” One Twitter user said as she responded to Jeff’s poll.

There were a few fans who even suggested the possibility of some kind of extra footage of things happening on camp being made available similar to the live streams offered by Big Brother. After castaways are voted off, it is not uncommon for them to open up about things they wish would have made it into episodes of the show during their exit interviews.

A second fan of the series added to the Twitter poll, “I will watch as much Survivor as you can give me, but a 2-hr premiere in particular really gives us a chance to meet the cast and makes it feel more like an event! But also, yes, occasional 2-hr eps, as well. What can I say? I love the show.”

Meet this year's castaways on #Survivor https://t.co/KHYTQ7cqMt

— Intl. Business Times (@IBTimes) February 20, 2019

The same day Jeff took to Twitter to poll on how long episodes should be, he also tweeted out a thank to fans for their loyalty to Survivor as viewership was just as solid as it always has been for the reality series.

New episodes of Survivor air every Wednesday only on CBS.