Spoilers ahead for Survivor 45. If you haven't watched the finale, beware!
CBS' competition series Survivor changed the TV world forever, and is widely considered one of the best reality shows of all time. Season 45 of Survivor just aired its finale, with a new winner being crowned in the form of Dee Valladares. This season of Survivor also introduced 90-minute episodes, seemingly as a result of the strikes. And there's a few reasons why Survivor should keep the longer episodes forever.
Fans who figured out how to watch Survivor 45 were treated to longer episodes, which allowed audiences to better understand the castaways and their motivations. We were promised fans would love the longer Surivor episodes, and they definitely won me over. And they should really keep it around for the foreseeable future.
To start, longer episodes helped to show more of camp life, and opened the doors for fun edited sequences like the Survivor Top Gun montage. Each castaway was much more fleshed out, and we understood why their moves were happening. In recent seasons the show has had to cram a lot of gameplay into each hour-long episode, sometimes at the price of ignoring storytelling or the show's traditions.
Survivor is constantly changing, and the longtime fans can sometimes have a hard time adjusting to these shifts. But the longer episodes of the show allow for some traditions to return to the show. Case in point: the long-awaited return of the full theme song. The Survivor auction also returned in Season 45, and was able to be given more airtime thanks to the extended episodes. So if we 90-minute episodes stay for the long haul, hopefully we'll see more welcomed returns to form from the series.
Survivor 45 is able to be streamed in its entirety with a Paramount+ subscription, with every episode from the season being extended. It was already revealed that Survivor's longer episodes will continue with Season 46, but it's unclear if what will happen with next year's seasons. But if 90-minutes gives more payoffs in the next season, perhaps the network can be convinced to do extended seasons indefinitely. Hey, a fan can dream.
Overall, it seems like the challenge of longer episodes inspired some brilliant ideas by the editors of Survivor. In addition to the Top Gun montage, this season also featured Survivor's first flash forward sequence. And since Season 46's editing will presumably be on a less crazy time crunch, I'm eager to see what comes next in the spring's batch of episodes.
Survivor airs new episodes on CBS, and the entire show's catalogue is available to stream with a subscription to Paramount+. In the meantime, check out the TV premiere list to plan your next binge watch.
