The numbers are rolling in for the Survivor 48 premiere, and they aren't looking so good. According to a report from Programming Insider, the Survivor 48 premiere, which aired on Wednesday, Feb. 26, was watched by 4.27 million viewers. That is the lowest-rated premiere ever for a season of Survivor. But, guess what? It really doesn't even matter.
Sure, CBS would love higher ratings for Survivor. Looking at the older seasons of the show, even some of the New Era seasons, Survivor used to be much more popular. I would argue that more people know about this show than they ever have, even if they aren't watching, and that's a testament to the series evolving, changing, and growing with its audience. The show continues to bring in new fans, so what's the big deal with the ratings?
Well, to me, there isn't anything to worry about for CBS with these ratings, despite the decline. There are a few reasons that this is happening, so don't let a few grabby headlines trick you into thinking Survivor isn't thriving as a series.
First of all, Survivor was and continues to be the biggest reality competition series in the United States, and it's not really even close. Deal or No Deal Island, another popular reality competition series, basically has half as many people tuning in on a weekly basis.
On top of that, TV ratings just aren't what they used to be. Long gone are the days of 12 million people tuning in to watch Survivor: Philippines (season 25). That's just the reality of the TV industry. Across the board, same-day viewership on traditional TV platforms has dropped. Survivor is not an outlier, but it is surviving in a tricky TV landscape.
The other point is that the low-ish ratings do not even include Paramount+ viewership. More people watch TV on streaming services than ever before. Sure, advertisers have less reach on CBS than they used to, but there's still some amount of reach that can happen on Paramount+, as well.
In the CBS News special report about Survivor, the report claimed the series has averaged about 6 million viewers for each new episode. I think that's probably a fair estimate based on the Survivor 48 premiere numbers.
Survivor is the most popular non-One Chicago show on Wednesdays
So, as you can see, the declining numbers, while low, do not paint an accurate picture of what is happening with the series. Compared to other current shows, Survivor reportedly is still one of the biggest shows on TV in the 18-48 and 25-54 demographics. It is the most popular show in those demographics among the Wednesday night shows. That's a big deal! That proves just how popular this series still is with fans of all ages.
And, looking at the other networks, Survivor is basically just as popular as Chicago Med, Chicago Fire, and Chicago PD. Those three shows, which averaged about 5 million viewers combined last week, were the only shows with a bigger audience than the Survivor 48 premiere. Survivor ranked fourth last Wednesday behind those three shows, according to the Programming Insider report.
On the one hand, I think it's interesting that throughout the New Era of Survivor (since Survivor: Winners at War in 2020), ratings have dropped season-over-season, but it's not an issue overall. CBS has already picked up Survivor for at least two more seasons, through Survivor 50, and it sounds like there's more Survivor in the works after that if recent reports are accurate.
I'm not worried about the future of Survivor, and neither should you!