Season 49 of CBS' hit show Survivor will air its scheduled three-hour finale on Wednesday night — though there will be a significant interruption in the episode due to President Donald Trump's Oval Office address at 9 PM.
The Daily Beast reported Wednesday that Trump's scheduled address – which is reportedly going to highlight the president's second-term agenda and goals heading into 2026 — will preempt the Survivor season finale, much to the chagrin of the show's fans and former contestants. Survivor season 47 contestant Teeny Chirichillo told the Beast that he sympathizes with contestants watching at home who won't "have the nice bow on top to what is an incredibly taxing and emotional process."
"Because I’ve experienced being on the show, the finale is really an opportunity to celebrate a really intense emotional experience, which is, watching back this incredibly challenging thing you lived through," he added.
Parade Magazine writer Mike Bloom clarified that the season 49 finale of Survivor will pause after the first hour for Trump's presidential address, and that the remainder of the show would then air afterward. Former Survivor contestant Kass McQuillen observed that there was "irony" in "Mark Burnett's two most famous and distorted creations airing at the same time." (Burnett was also a producer of The Apprentice on NBC.)
Survivor fans reacted harshly to the news on social media. One fan argued that "interrupting the Survivor finale should be illegal," but lamented that "this is what happens when CBS gets bought by someone up Trump’s [peach emoji, which is used as a stand-in for a rear end]." Another fan reacted to the news of the interruption with a gif of Steve Carell's character from The Office exclaiming "no" repeatedly.
" Trump is a deranged man for scheduling a speech in the middle of the Survivor 49 finale," another fan tweeted.
New York Sun correspondent Matt Rice asserted: "Delaying the Survivor season finale for a nighttime address to the nation could actually result in Trump losing a few more points on his approval rating."
"Can he ... address us AFTER the Survivor 49 finale?" Author Sheila Taylor Clarke wrote.
Click here to read the Beast's full report (subscription required).
