Wednesday night’s episode of the popular show Survivor faced an unexpected disruption as CBS had to cut short its planned content to air President Donald Trump’s primetime address on the situation in Iran. This decision left devoted fans of the series disappointed as they were anticipating the show’s merge episode.
The interruption occurred around 9 p.m. ET when the president delivered his address from Washington, D.C. Frustrated viewers took to social media to express their discontent with the unexpected break in the broadcast schedule.
While some viewers voiced their annoyance online, Canadian viewers had a different experience. Global TV, which airs Survivor in Canada, opted to air a rerun of Border Security: Canada’s Front Line instead of Trump’s speech. This move sparked confusion among some viewers.
The 50th season of Survivor premiered in February and featured a cast of 24 fan favorites, including Canadians Genevieve Mushaluk and Kamilla Karthigesu. In a surprising turn of events during Wednesday’s episode, Mushaluk, Karthigesu, and veteran player Colby Donaldson were eliminated in a triple elimination round. The season finale is scheduled to air on May 20.
This was not the first time that a presidential address had interrupted an episode of Survivor. In the previous season’s finale, a similar interruption occurred just before the season’s winner was to be revealed. Fans had to wait for about 20 minutes before the show resumed.
Apart from Survivor fans, followers of other popular shows like Chicago Fire and The Masked Singer also experienced interruptions for the president’s address. It is worth noting that Mark Burnett, the executive producer of Survivor, also produced Trump’s reality show The Apprentice.
While the interruption was planned and CBS had issued a programming advisory ahead of the address, viewers in different time zones had varying experiences. The Pacific time zone viewers were fortunate to watch the episode uninterrupted.