“Survivor” and “The Amazing Race” both shifted to 90-minute episodes this fall, and those extra half-hours have come with solid returns, especially in terms of multiplatform viewership.
Viewership of the first two episodes of “Survivor” Season 45 on streaming — counting Paramount+ as well as the CBS website and app — has increased by 83% when compared to the first two episodes of Season 43, which aired last fall. The overall audience, including views on CBS, DVR and VOD, has increased by 6%. So while a slightly higher number of viewers have tuned into “Survivor” this year, this data also indicates that those viewers are staggeringly more likely to access the show via digital platforms than they were just one year ago. These statisics come from both Nielsen and first-party data from Paramount Global, accounting for seven days of viewership.
To a lesser degree, the same is true for “The Amazing Race” Season 35, which has seen a 32% increase in streaming viewership year-over-year. The show’s overall audience has remained on par with Season 33 — still a plus for CBS, as overall primetime TV viewership has declined by 9% compared to fall 2022.
The power of CBS’ audience for unscripted material is also demonstrated by both shows’ Multiplatform + 7 data. The network saw 5 million viewers on premiere night with “Survivor” and 2.6 million viewers with “The Amazing Race” — while seven days of multiplatform viewing now indicates that the seasons are averaging 6.8 million viewers and 4.6 million viewers, respectively.
Broadcast viewership has increased since last year as well, though not as dramatically as streaming. The shift in proportions across platforms is largely explained by in the demographic tuning into the series; for both “Survivor” and “The Amazing Race” the average streaming viewer is 20 years younger than the average viewer on CBS.
The viewership wealth is being shared with previous seasons as well. Seasons 43 and 44 of “Survivor” have seen streaming increases of 77% and 49%, respectively, while the show as a whole, including all previous seasons, has been streamed 58% more over the past few weeks than it was during the first three weeks of Season 43. In the case of “The Amazing Race,” 64% more active subscribing households have been reached this year than last year.
