The most hotly anticipated strongman competition of the year is upon us: the 2019 World’s Strongest Man event will take place in Bradenton, Florida from Thursday, June 13th until Sunday, June 16th. Every strongman fan on Earth wants to watch it… and they’ll have to wait.
How to Watch the 2019 World’s Strongest Man
In short, you can’t watch it — not live, anyway. But this year, the turnaround from when the event occurs to its television debut will be faster than ever.
The competition is known for their strict policies with regard to live streaming or live broadcast. In our discussions with the event’s organizers, we began to understand why: the events last for four full days and there’s a lot of down time between events. They need time to edit it together into a watchable TV package.
But here’s the good news: the World’s Strongest Man will be split up into several “episodes” and the first will air on June 30th on CBS. It will be one hour long, sources at World’s Strongest Man have confirmed to BarBend.
Check out the full airing schedule below!
CBS
- CBS: Sunday, June 30th — Shows 1 & 2 (Premiere)
CBSSN
- CBSSN: Thursday, July 11th — Shows 1 & 2 (Encore)
- CBSSN: Thursday, July 18th — Shows 3 & 4 (Consecutive Within Same Hour)
- CBSSN: Thursday, July 25th — Show 5 (Preceded By Episode 4 Within Same Hour)
- CBSSN: Thursday, August 1st — Show 6 (Preceded By Episode 5 Within Same Hour)
- CBSSN: Thursday, August 8th — Show 7 (Preceded By Episode 6 Within Same Hour)
- CBSSN: Thursday, August 15th — Show 8 (Preceded By Episode 7 Within Same Hour)
- CBSSN: Thursday, August 22nd —Shows 9 & 10 Premieres (Consecutive Within Same Hour)
CBS
- CBS: Sunday, September 1st — Show 11 (Finals + The Premiere)
CBSSNN
- CBSSN: Sunday, September 1st —Show 11 (Finals/Encore) – 9 PM
Exactly two weeks from the end of the event to the first episode on television. That’s the fastest World’s Strongest Man has ever made it to TV. Last year, there was over a month between the event ending on May 6th and airing on June 10th.
And historically, most broadcasts took months to make it to the airwaves — it’s well known that World’s Strongest Man used to air only during the Christmas season (it still does in the United Kingdom), and the athletes and producers weren’t able to say who won the event for some six months between the event and the broadcast.
[See the full roster of athletes and events for the 2019 World’s Strongest Man!]
At the time of writing, we don’t know how many episodes there will be. But for context, last year’s TV schedule consisted of ten half-hour episodes and a one-hour finale, spread out over about three months. (You can see the 2018 World’s Strongest Man schedule here.) The first two episodes aired on the same night in a one-hour block.
While you won’t see any official live broadcasts during the event itself, plenty of fans will be uploading updates, and the results of the competition will likely be no secret once they’re announced. Check out our news section to stay up to date on the winners.
Featured image via @thorbjornsson on Instagram.