‘Big Brother 18’ continues ratings slide — what’s going on?

Let’s start this article with something that feels important to point out: “Big Brother” is not going anywhere. This article isn’t meant to be a giant red “panic” button sitting next to the “reset” button that comes out in the house sometimes. It’s meant more as a discussion.

What’s going on with this season so far in the ratings? You would think that booking returning players was a stunt for CBS to boost the numbers, especially given that the Olympics are coming later this summer and that is a potential competitor like the show hasn’t seen since the last time they were on. Unfortunately, we do think the network made the mistake of randomly throwing people against the fan who have no real relationship or theme other than that they were all on fairly recent seasons. All returnees would have been better, especially in a “rivals,” a “second chance,” or a “heroes vs. villains” format.

Let’s show you a few examples as to how the numbers are down.

Wednesday – The premiere drew a 1.9 rating in the 18-49 demographic, down from the 2.1 in season 17.

Thursday – The eviction show drew a 1.7, down from a 2.1 for the one last year.

Sunday – Last night the show hit its lowest number yet in a 1.5, down from a 1.8.

These are fairly sizable increases, so you cannot really say it falls within a margin of error. Also, there hasn’t really been too many major competitors out there with the NBA Finals over and the show not competing against “Game of Thrones.” Some of it may be natural fatigue, and another part of it may just be that there is nothing that is really exciting anyone just yet. It’s hard to pin any one thing down other than that the show isn’t really getting any new casual fans, and we’d classify this as a bad summer for CBS other than the “Person of Interest” finale. Two of their new series in “BrainDead” and “American Gothic” have shown to be rather large disappointments.

Want to get some other news when it comes to “Big Brother”? Then be sure to head over to the link here right now, and sign up over here to score some other TV news on all we cover, sent right over to you via our official CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: CBS.)