Racially divided "Survivor" slips from past debuts

By Steve GormanFri Sep 15, 8:57 PM ET

The controversial new format of the CBS reality show "Survivor" -- dividing teams of contestants by race -- proved the series' least-watched debut episode since its first season, Nielsen Media Research reported on Friday.

Thursday's launch of "Survivor: Cook Islands," featuring four racially based "tribes" of whites, blacks, Asian-Americans and Latinos, averaged 18 million viewers, easily ranking as the night's biggest broadcast in U.S. prime time.

But it also was the least-watched "Survivor" season opener -- and the lowest-rated in terms of advertisers' favorite audience, viewers aged 18 to 49 -- since the very first installment in the summer of 2000 (15.5 million).

The "Survivor" franchise, which helped usher in a wave of unscripted contest shows that swept prime time six years ago, was already showing signs of wear heading into its 13th edition this season.

After several years of debut audiences topping 20 million viewers, "Survivor: Panama-Exile" launched in February with nearly 19.2 million viewers and "Survivor: Guatemala" opened with 18.4 million last fall.

Recently, General Motors Corp. said it was ending its six-year sponsorship of the show, insisting the move had nothing to do with complaints raised by minority groups and others about the show's new race-based format.

The controversy and publicity surrounding the new direction taken by producer Mark Burnett failed to spark the heightened interest CBS might have hoped for in relatively light competition against two new Fox network comedies.

Nevertheless, 18 million viewers is considered a solid number by most standards, especially in the realm of reality TV, a genre where many shows fade quickly in popularity.

"This is (edition) No. 13, and it's still doing a number that any network would love to have," a CBS spokesman said.

In future weeks, "Survivor" will face tougher competition from new episodes of popular NBC comedies "The Office" and "My Name is Earl," and ABC's new series "Ugly Betty."