March 8, 2017 ratings: Survivor: Game Changers lowest-rated premiere to date
Based on the way that the CBS lineup’s performed as of late, we anticipated Survivor: Game Changers premiere ratings to be down. Still, we hoped that they would perform slightly better than this.
The first episode of the series drew a 1.7 rating in the 18-49 demographic, the lowest premiere rating in the history of the series. Note that we’re not trying to beat the drum and proclaim that the show’s in any danger, but it’s important to point out ratings trends. CBS is getting people to watch more and more via other means, and that’s good since we’re seeing many of their shows, whether it be NCIS or Criminal Minds, lose a substantial number of viewers year-to-year.
Now, we’re curious to see if losing someone as important to the show within the first two episodes is going to be something that influences the ratings the rest of the way. We do think that there are enough significant other players for the perceived impact of this to be pretty minimal. We’ll see what happens further there when the show returns.
We do suggest you check out our full review of the premiere to get more of a blow-by-blow account of what happened in the Survivor: Game Changers premiere now. We’ll have exit interviews later in the day.
Designated Survivor on the upswing
There was good news for at least one show named Survivor, as ABC’s Designated Survivor actually returned up to an 1.3 rating in the demo. While not anywhere near the ratings that it was at during the start of the series, it’s still pretty good considering that it had such a long layoff and viewers easily could’ve forgotten about everything that happened.
Worse news for Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders
The second season of this show, which premiered in a most unusual way after the cancellation of Doubt, failed to produce more than a 0.9 rating. We have a hard time imagining that the show will lose its viewers anywhere near as quickly as Doubt did, but it’s not giving itself a whole lot of wiggle room here. Also, losing this big a chunk of its lead-in from Survivor is far from something to brag about.
Modern Family falls
The last thing that we should mention here is that the most-recent season 8 episode of the series ended up drawing just a 1.9 rating — this still won the night, but this is the first time ever that the show fell below a 2.0 when rounding. This could in turn impact the contract negotiations that are going on right now.
What do you think about the Survivor: Game Changers premiere ratings, and everything else on the night? Share now in the comments!