This past Wednesday,Survivorreturned toCBSpresenting its 48th season of the franchise, and introduced the audience to a new set of castaways who will be competing to claim the one million dollar prize at the end of 26 days in Fiji. The ratings for the premiere episode ofSurvivoris traditionally high from season to season, and althoughoverall viewership has declined since the “New Era"began in 2021, they’ve still remained one of the top leading shows on cable. That said, despite hostJeff Probstannouncing that fans will have the opportunity to vote on the rules forSurvivor 50sreturning players seasonstarting last week, viewership for this year’s debut episode was nothing short of disappointing.
According toTV Series Finale,the first episode ofSurvivor 48drew 4,269,000 viewers and 0.69 in the key 18-49 demographic, which isthe lowest total viewership for any premiere of the show since the “New Era” began.It’s also a near 500,000 viewer decline compared to last year’s debut episode, whenthe premiere ofSurvivor 47garnered 4,721,000 viewers.The 18-49 demographic was also down by 16% since last year’s finale. The first installment ofSurvivor 48was also the lowest total viewership for any episode since last October, when the show almost posted under 4 million viewers for the fifth episode of the season. Although Probst and CBS are likely disappointed with last week’s rating,Survivorstill impressed compared to its reality television competition on Wednesday night.
‘Survivor’ Still Performed Well Against Competition
According toProgramming Insider,Survivorfinished aboveCelebrity Jeopardy!andThe Masked Singerin both total viewership and the 18-49 demographic.Survivoralso managed to draw a larger audience thanJesse Watters PrimetimeonFox News,who they went head-to-head with at 8 pm ET. Most impressively,Survivorfinished 4th on cable on Wednesday night, falling behindChicago Med,Chicago FireandChicago P.D.,which controlled the top three spots onNBC.Altough theChicagofranchise dominated total viewership,Survivortopped the 18-49 demo on Wednesday, significantly drawing a younger audience than its competitors. Despite the discouraging premiere rating last week,Survivorhas proven they can grow their audience as a season progresses, especially when the finale approaches. Hopefully the fan vote forSurvivor’slandmark 50th seasonwill be a motivating factor for fans to tune-in going forward.
Although there’s hopeSurvivorcan perform better in the ratings this coming Wednesday, throughout the last three seasons of the show,the second episode has traditionally declined in viewership.Survivorrarely falls beneath the 4 million viewer threshold per episode, but with the premiere already hovering around the 4.2 million mark, there’s definitely concern that viewership will continue to decline if fans become uninterested. That said, even if the next two seasons fail to perform in the viewership department,Survivor 50will undoubtedly draw a larger audience due to theseason featuring returning players only.Survivoris available to stream on Paramount + in the U.S.
Source:TV Series FinaleProgramming Insider
