Would be nice to know when this interview was conducted because Jeff
mentions they've edited up through Episode 4. If the interview was done
very recently it makes me wonder if they could last minute editing later
on to deal with fan reactions either good or bad.

__________________________________________________________________

Jeff Probst says 90-minute /Survivor/ episodes are the 'sweet spot'

The host says that the extra time is like "one more cocktail at the party."

By
Dalton Ross <https://ew.com/author/dalton-ross/>

Published on February 27, 2024

Fans who have been clamoring for more /Survivor/
<https://ew.com/survivor-46-player-uncovered-secret-pre-game-flower-alliance-8598895>
finally got their wish when the gold standard of reality television
became 50 percent bigger last fall with the introduction of/Survivor 45
<https://ew.com/survivor-45-finale-recap-episode-13-8418498>./ While the
move to 90-minute episodes
<https://ew.com/tv/survivor-45-jeff-probst-90-minute-episodes/> that
season was put into place due to the writers' and actors' strikes that
shut down Hollywood — leaving the CBS schedule barren of scripted
programming — the end result was a creative triumph, with what ended up
being thebest-produced season of the new era
<https://ew.com/gallery/ranking-every-survivor-season/>.

The move was such a success that CBS is now not only airing /Survivor 46
/
<https://ew.com/survivor-46-players-predict-season-explosions-arguments-8584631>(which
premieres Feb. 28) at 90-minutes as well, but the network is even
kicking off the season with two, two-hour episodes. There is a
difference, however. While Jeff Probst
<https://ew.com/survivor-host-jeff-probst-ready-to-get-tougher-at-tribal-council-8598024>
— who acts as both host and showrunner — knew in advance of filming
season 45 that it would be airing at 90 minutes, so his crew could
structure their creative elements accordingly, they had no such
assurances for/Survivor 46/.  So how did that impact how team /Survivor/
put the episodes together for the upcoming campaign?

“When we were shooting 46, I did have an instinct that we might do 90
minutes even though CBS said, ‘We don't need 'em, we're fine,’” Probst
tells EW. “We couldn’t produce for 90 minutes again [not knowing for
sure] because the workload was enormous. You're doing 50 percent more
show and that means 50 percent more effort from everybody, 50 percent
more content, more twists, more events, more set pieces. We didn't have
the scheduling or the people power to do that.”

What they /did/ have, however, were the contestants
<https://ew.com/survivor-46-cast-contestants-revealed-8557071> — and
that proved to be a resource producers could pretty much tap at will.
“We do have great players and we do have great storytellers,” says
Probst. “So we just took little moments that we might've in previous
seasons said, ‘We don't really need to do an interview on that. It's
probably not going to make the show.’ And this year we did an interview
on that, and it's really interesting. Suddenly, a whole story opens up.
We're learning that there's a lot of gold in those crevices and in those
little scenes.”

The bottom line, says the host, is that even though season 45 was
planned to be 90 minutes and season 46 was not, the viewer should not
even notice: “I don't think you're going to feel anything different,”
says Probst. “We've edited up through episode 4, and everything is
great. There's great story, great gameplay, and so it’s really an
opportunity for the editors. All the storytellers that are jammed into
that post-production process, they're amazing. The only big problem is
CBS now thinks, ‘Oh, you could do 90 minutes whenever we want.’”

Probst had long hoped for longer episodes before the move to 90 minutes
so that his show did not have to lose those nuggets of gold that would
otherwise end up on the proverbial editing room floor each week. It’s
why the series had previously gotten rid of the “previously on…” and
opening credits segments, to allow as much time as possible for fresh
content. So once he finally got his wish, it would have been
particularly cruel to make him go back to the shorter length.

“After season 45, I was talking with CBS saying, ‘It's going to be hard
to go back to 60 minutes. We can do it, and we will anytime you need us
to, but we got to feel what it was like to have one more cocktail at the
party.’”

And, for the host and showrunner, the freedom that came with 90 minutes
was simply intoxicating. “That's what it felt like, because instead of
an idol hunt lasting for 90 seconds, you could let it play for four
minutes. And in that extra time, you got to see inside the person, the
panic, how they dealt with it, the dirt on their fingernails, and
digging one more time, and here comes somebody — all of those are things
that in a 60-minute episode we'd have to say, ‘We don't have time for
it. It doesn't really matter.’ But then when you see it, you're like,
‘Well, it does matter!’ I think 90 minutes is a great sweet spot for an
episode of /Survivor/.”

And if /Survivor 46/ plays as well with audiences as the host thinks it
will, that could be the permanent spot moving forward.

Source:
https://ew.com/survivor-jeff-probst-90-minute-episodes-sweet-spot-8599461

--
Brian