via CBS press release:
THE PREMIERE OF THE 19TH EDITION OF "SURVIVOR" WINS ITS TIME PERIOD IN VIEWERS, ADULTS 18-49 AND ADULTS 25-54
CBS Wins Every Half Hour in Viewers with "Survivor" and Drama Rebroadcasts
The premiere of SURVIVOR: SAMOA, the 19th edition of the hit reality series, won its time period in viewers, adults 18-49, adults 25-54 and tied for first in adults 18-34 as CBS placed first in viewers during every half hour on the night, according to Nielsen preliminary live plus same day ratings for Thursday, Sept. 17.
SURVIVOR: SAMOA topped the season premieres of "Saturday Night Live Weekend Update" and "Parks and Recreation" on NBC and "Bones" on FOX in key demographic measures.
SURVIVOR SAMOA SPECIAL (S) was first in households (6.7/11), viewers (11.49m), adults 25-54 (4.5/13), adults 18-49 (3.5/11) and tied for first in adults 18-34 (2.3/08, with FOX).
CSI (R) was first in households (5.7/09) and viewers (8.80m) ahead of season premieres of "Fringe" on FOX, "The Office" and the series premiere of "Community" on NBC.
THE Mentalist (R) was first in households (6.0/11) and viewers (8.74m), topping a first-run "The Jay Leno Show."
For the night, CBS was first in households (6.1/10), viewers (9.68m) and second in adults 25-54 (3.3/09).
Updated Thursday ratings will be available this afternoon.
Even though Survivor’s number were down year by year it was always still the clear winner on its time slot but for this season they are vulnerable, it has two threats, first is Bones which is growing, sort of reminds me when Criminal Minds slowly beat Lost, that could happen to with Bones and Survivor. The other threat is FlashForward, if they could live up the hype, it would easily crush Survivor
I have my concerns about Survivor this season. If Flashforward takes off it will probably hurt Survivor more than Bones. Survivor might pickup in the second half of the season after the tribes merge. That’s when the game gets more interesting. Do we have any trend numbers on Survivor over one season? Does it tend to increase as we get into the second half of the thirteen weeks?
However casting always trumps all in reality television and CBS might have gotten very lucky this year with a survivor who seems to bring new meaning to the term villian. If this guy hangs around for awhile and is as bad as he was last night then people might tune-in.