Because of the Hollywood strikes, unscripted fare is king when it comes to fall TV this year, and with new seasons of “Survivor” and “The Amazing Race,” CBS scored some early-season ratings wins on Wednesday night.
Viewership of the “Survivor” Season 45 premiere broadcast was about even with the previous season’s debut, with both bringing in about 5 million viewers. “The Amazing Race” Season 35 broadcast was viewed by an average 2.6 million viewers, down from last year’s 3 million. But these numbers don’t account for viewership on Paramount+ and the CBS app and website, where CBS programming is simulcast. On streaming, “Survivor” was up 42% and and “The Amazing Race” was up 36%, suggesting that overall, the audiences for both shows were significantly larger than they were in 2022. (Unsurprisingly, the competition series were the No. 1 and No. 2 programs on Paramount+ Wednesday night.)
“Survivor” had the second-biggest broadcast of the night across all of television, second only to NBC’s “America’s Got Talent,” which averaged a slightly higher 5.2 million viewers. And because of “Survivor’s” significant streaming bump, it’s likely that the series actually brought in the larger audience across all platforms on its premiere night. “America’s Got Talent” only simulcasts on NBCU’s streamer, Peacock, in select markets, whereas Paramount+ simulcasts are available nationwide.
Both “Survivor” and “The Amazing Race” returned with supersized seasons; CBS announced in May that the series were both permanently expanding to 90-minute episode lengths. Read PvNew‘s recap of the “Survivor” premiere here, and a first-person account of how the challenges on “The Amazing Race” Season 35 were tested here.
