After 45 seasons, Survivor is something however a castaway for CBS.
The newest season concludes Wednesday evening, and the broadcaster is respiration a sigh of reduction figuring out that its new 90-minute episode technique for each Survivor and The Superb Race paid off. CBS’ Wednesday primetime viewers is up 19% year-over-year.
For the primary time since 2014, CBS is topping Wednesdays, thanks partially to the 25-54 demo that continues to be dedicated to its actuality competitors programming.
Primarily based on Nielsen’s most present information, Survivor is averaging 6.59M viewers and 1.6 ranking amongst adults 25-54 per Season 45 episode. That marks a 4% viewers improve year-over-year.
As Nielsen information declining ranges of individuals utilizing tv, CBS is looking this a win. And it’s. Whereas beneath 7M viewers might have appeared pretty low even just a few years in the past, attracting that type of viewers on linear TV is turning into more and more uncommon as extra individuals minimize the twine and lean into streaming. In 2017, Season 35 of Survivor managed about 7.9M viewers through the fall broadcast window. So, retaining greater than 80% of its viewers over the past six years isn’t too dangerous.
The 2023/2024 broadcast season marks the fifth time that Survivor has been No. 1 amongst adults 25-54 because it debuted in 2000. The collection reclaimed that title within the 2021/2022 broadcast season for the primary time since 2001/2002. Survivor additionally continues to be Prime 5 in complete viewers amongst non-sports programming, and it is available in behind The Voice (each Monday and Tuesday airings) to be the No. 3 unscripted leisure program.
CBS has beforehand reserved the 90-minute episode of Survivor for particular occasions. Nonetheless, this season, it a bet by deciding to decide to that episode size every week. Whereas it might have appeared just like the community’s response to the summer season of twin writers and actors strikes that delayed fall scripted programming, President of CBS Leisure Amy Reisenbach says the choice was made lengthy earlier than the specter of a labor motion loomed.
“It was a dialogue that got here up very late final yr,” she stated, including that she sat down with George Cheeks, president and CEO of CBS on the finish of 2022 to “suppose extra long run.”
She continued: “And this concept was born out of that assembly…It appeared like a good way to once more clean up the exhibits, give the viewers extra of what they’re craving and love and permit the exhibits a little bit bit extra room to breathe and check out new issues and it’s actually paid off in so many nice methods.”
Reisenbach credit the 90-minute episodes as one of many components that has saved audiences round for Season 45, given the truth that the producers of each Survivor and Superb Race got ample heads up they’d want to provide the additional content material.
A simple job for each actuality exhibits, which Reisenbach admits “at all times have additional footage on the ground.”
The episode size did enable some respiration room for the present to reintroduce an extended intro, characteristic extra challenges, and produce again the Survivor motion, which was final seen in 2015 and was reinvented for Season 45.
“They had been capable of actually put together and strategize in the way in which they structured competitions, structured twists, dug farther into contested backstories. I believe that every one has [come] collectively to create actually excellent inventive this season,” Reisenbach continued.
Because of streaming, Survivor can also be discovering youthful viewers. Based on Paramount World, streaming throughout Paramount+ and CBS digital apps is up 54% year-over-year on a mean minute viewers foundation, with viewers who’re, on common, 20 years youthful than these watching on broadcast.
These audiences appear to be catching up on what they missed within the final 44 seasons, as CBS’ guardian firm additionally experiences that 57% of the full time spent watching Survivor on Paramount+ was prior seasons. In all, Survivor is up 72% year-over-year by way of complete time spent watching, making it the No. 3 actuality program on the platform. As is typical, Paramount World stays mum on precise viewership figures for Survivor or any of its different titles on streaming.
The present additionally ranks as CBS’s most co-viewed collection with children, indicating a broad, multi-generational viewers for the collection, in response to Paramount World.
Curiously sufficient, Paramount World additionally says information exhibits the viewers composition of Survivor is much like status dramas like Netflix’s All of the Gentle We Can’t See. Reisenbach causes it is because Survivor is among the many ranks of “status actuality.”
“They’re the grande dames of actuality tv. They’re so sincere with their gameplay and it’s actually about coronary heart and on the finish of the day, they’re actual individuals, however they really feel such as you’re watching characters and you’re feeling such as you get to know them, simply the way in which you’ll on a Netflix collection,” she instructed Deadline. “It’s equally addictive and also you need to speak about it with your folks. There’s an enormous group, it’s a multi-generational group.”
Survivor stays one of many longest operating actuality competitors packages in tv historical past, behind solely MTV’s The Problem, which premiered two years earlier in 1998. The collection’ host Jeff Probst holds the crown because the longest serving actuality collection host for a single present in tv historical past.
One way or the other, it’s nonetheless going robust for CBS even after such a future — and Season 45’s efficiency signifies blue skies forward for the collection into the approaching yr.
Reisenbach says the technique for the present shifting ahead won’t change a lot, as a result of “it’s not broke, so we’re not seeking to repair it.”
Nonetheless, the community will proceed to guage how Survivor can adapt. That, she stresses, is one other key to the longevity of the collection. They may proceed to ask questions of their long-running collection, together with: “How can they make the exhibits higher? How can they discover twists that shock the viewers? How will we dig deep by way of who we solid?”
“So we honor their actually gone legacies whereas additionally persevering with to guarantee that exhibits at all times really feel actually recent,” she stated.
