A collection management system presents, as part of a content discovery session, a first content item from a content discovery collection that includes a plurality of content items that are ordered sequentially for presentation. In response to receiving an advancement input, the collection management system determines whether a number of content items presented as part of the content discovery session meets or exceeds a threshold number of content items, and whether an amount of elapsed time of the content discovery session meets or exceeds a threshold amount of time. The collection management system presents a first alternate content item as part of the content discover session. The first alternate content item is not included in the content discovery collection. After presenting the first alternate content item, the collection management system presents a second content item from the content discover collection that is ordered after the first content item.