You're reading it here first.
I can be first to reveal that SABC3 has buckled under island fever and mounting internal fear of viewer backlash and will now show the finale and reunion episodes of Survivor XVI: Micronesia on one night - Monday, September 27 and from 19:30.
''What?'' I hear you say. ''Isn't that supposed to be how it happens?'' Nope. Because of SABC3's schedule restructuring, SABC3 secretly decided a while ago to make this 16th season of Survivor (playing out on Mondays at 20:00 between fans and favourites) the first season where the finale as well as the reunion episode don't get broadcast straight-on and directly after the penultimate episode in a Survivor night marathon. SABC3 didn't want to disrupt its 21:00 Monday to Wednesday drama slot.
Now sources tell me SABC3 is in a blind panic behind the scenes and fearing a major viewer backlash (who won't know or understand after 15 seasons why this is happening) and have decided to shelf the idea. This will now result in a major schedule change affecting the scheduling and starting dates of several shows. SABC3 is scared of a repeat of its Survivor China finale mess when technical mistakes behind the scenes had viewers fuming. And since SABC3 has done nothing to tell viewers about its schedule ''surprise'' in two weeks, the Survivor Micronesia break-up plan has been canned.
SABC3 is now going back to the proverbial drawing board - it's master schedule and it putting the Survivor Micronesia finale and reunion ''back'' behind the penultimate episode - to all be broadcast on the same night of Monday, September 27 and from 19:30 onwards since the final episode is also 90 minutes long and also wouldn't have fit into the Monday night hour without serious editing and botching the show.
