As 'Survivor' Returns, So Do the Viewers

[John]

As 'Survivor' Returns, So Do the Viewers
1 hour, 4 minutes ago

By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer

NEW YORK - The premiere of "Survivor: Pearl Island" attracted nearly 22 million people last week, proving the series' enduring appeal.


The CBS hit, not only surviving but thriving in its seventh season, was the most-watched program on television last week, according to Nielsen Media Research.


Amid a flood of reality shows this summer, nothing could come close to the appeal of "Survivor." Last week's premiere had more than double the viewers, for instance, of "Cupid" on CBS and all three editions of "Big Brother."


Just under 18 million people watched the Emmy Awards on Fox Sunday night. That's 2 million fewer than last year, but slightly bigger than the audience that watched the Emmys on Fox four years ago.


ABC drew 14 million viewers for its tribute to the late John Ritter (news) last week, Nielsen said. Thanks to the special, "Monday Night Football" and the "Miss America (news - web sites)" telecast, ABC had its best ratings performance in six months.


Monday marked the beginning of a new television year and the end of rerun season.


For the week, CBS averaged 10 million viewers (6.6 rating, 11 share), ABC had 9.4 million (6.3, 11), NBC 8 million (5.6, 10), Fox 7.9 million (5.3, 9), the WB 3.9 million (2.6, 4), UPN 3.6 million (2.4, 4) and Pax TV 970,000 (0.7, 1).


NBC reported that its "Nightly News," over the full television season, scored its biggest viewership advantage over ABC's "World News Tonight" since the advent of Nielsen's "people meters" in 1987.


For the season, NBC's nightly news broadcast increased very slightly in viewers, while ABC declined by 2 percent and CBS dropped 7 percent.


Last week, "Nightly News" averaged 10.1 million viewers (7.3, rating, 15 share), "World News Tonight" had 9.3 million (6.6, 14) and the "CBS Evening News" had 8.2 million (5.9, 12).


A ratings point represents 1,067,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 106.7 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.


For the week of Sept. 15-21, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: "Survivor: Pearl Island," CBS, 21.5 million; "NFL Monday Night Football: Dallas at N.Y. Giants," ABC, 18.3 million; "Emmy Awards," Fox, 17.9 million; "NFL Monday Showcase," ABC, 14.5 million; "Everybody Loves Raymond (news - Y! TV)," CBS, 14.4 million; "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (news - Y! TV)," CBS, 14.1 million; "A Life of Laughter: John Ritter," ABC, 14 million; "Friends," NBC, 12.9 million; "Law & Order," NBC, 12.2 million; "CSI: Miami," CBS, 11.6 million.

[Siso]

The ratings i have a feeling won't fare so well against the final season of Freinds. I hope they hold up though, this season of Survivor, looks to be very promising.

[alex2020]

I hope the ratings stay up! to me this looks like it could be one of the best seasons yet!

[Paulie]

The ratings i have a feeling won't fare so well against the final season of Freinds.

You're probably right, unfortunately. I haven't watched that show in years, but it does have a devoted following who care about the last season. ("It really IS the last season this time. We're serious!") Still, every edition of Survivor so far has been a Top 10 program (if I'm not mistaken) so we don't have to worry about bad ratings killing it off.

[Siso]

I agree, Survivor will still hold up against Freinds, i just hope it isn't hurt too too bad.

[Zhora]

The funny thing is...other than my boyfriend, I think I'm the only person I know that watches Survivor. It's almost spooky.

[Paulie]

As everyone here probably knows, it's HUUUUUGE at my office. We have 30-people Survivor kickoff parties, our office pool has probably 50 people in it every season, and there are a hardcore handful of us that always debrief the newest episode every Friday morning. Even people who don't watch the show are very aware of it because of the very vocal percentage of us that do. Our team meetings on Thursday afternoon nearly always end with, "So who's getting voted off tonight?"

I love it.

[karalott]

The ratings i have a feeling won't fare so well against the final season of Freinds. I hope they hold up though, this season of Survivor, looks to be very promising.

It may look promising, thanks to the hype give by Mark Burnett and Jeff Probst, but it doesn't mean that it will be. I said this in another post, but Matt Roush made a comment that all odd numbered seasons of Survivor (with the exception of the first one; he's referring to Africa and Thailand) were dullsville, so seeing as how this is the seventh season, let's see if it breaks the track record.
Also, the first episodes always do well, but by about episode 4 or 5 it's pretty obvious if it'll be a good season or a bad one. I'll watch, because I do like the show, and there isn't anything else on Thursday night, that I watch at 8. I never did like Friends, and agree that Survivor will probably lose viewers. But at least it's the last season.

[eny]

Well , I always look at it like Friends will rerun, but survivor won't.

[Roz_City]

As long as folks are watching, the series will continue. This is a wonderful thing