'Survivor' Survives Another Season, Premiere Up 8%

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The new season had a warmup of sorts on Wednesday with one returning show and one new drama taking the stage: CBS' "Survivor: Nicaragua" and NBC's "Outlaw."  

Another season of CBS' "Survivor" -- now moving to Wednesday from Thursday -- took in 8% more ratings than its premiere of a year ago. It landed with a Nielsen preliminary 3.9 rating/12 share among 18-49 viewers, the best for any show of the night.

The Nielsen Company's official start of the season is next Monday, Sept. 20.

NBC's new fall drama "Outlaw," starring Jimmy Smits, opened in the 10 p.m. time slot with a respectable, but not stellar, 2.4 rating/7 share. The good news is that these numbers are a bit better than the premiere of two shows that ran in the time period a year ago: "Mercy" and "Trauma."

Two summer series ended with improved results. NBC's "America's Got Talent" took on 6% more 18-49 viewers than its finale last year to a big 3.7 rating/11 share. It was also the show's best finale ratings in three years. CBS' "Big Brother" also reached a high note -- a 2.8/9 -- up 4% in ratings from last year's finale.

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Fox's "MasterChef" wasn't in the league of either of these two -- just getting to a 2.0/6 share for its finale. It was massively off its previous week's episode, cooked by almost 30%.

However, sister network CW got a boost for its longtime "Next Top Model" series -- a 5% improvement to a 2.2 rating among its key women 18-34 audience. It also improved 7% among the more broader adults 18-49 group, to a 1.5 rating.

While CW had a lot to talk about with "Models," its new "Hellcats" dropped under the 2 rating mark in its second week among women 18-34 viewers, to a 1.7 rating.

For the night, NBS squeezed out a victory among 18-49 viewers with a 3.3/10. Next was CBS at a 3.2/9, followed by Fox at a 2.0/6; Univision at a 1.9/6, the CW, at a 1.2/4, and ABC at a 1.2/3.

In somewhat of a surprise, CBS -- long known as one of the oldest-skewing broadcast networks -- won among younger viewers, adults 18-34. It had a 2.5/8 for the next, just besting NBC's 2.4/8.

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