Ratings: ‘Survivor’ Finale Shocker Dominates Against Rerun Competition

NBC is Wednesday’s runner-up, pretty much by default

Survivor Season 35 Finale
Still a ratings winner, the 35th season of the original primetime network reality franchise concluded on Wednesday night, December 20. (CBS/Screengrab)

Wednesday’s “Survivor” Season 35 finale left fans stunned — but the Nielsen ratings results against a bunch of reruns were actually pretty predictable.

CBS cruised to an outright victory last night, when NBC finished No. 2 with a “Will & Grace” rerun and a re-airing of movie “Pitch Perfect.”

Ultimately, 34-year-old marine Ben Driebergen from Boise, Idaho, won Jeff Probst’s $1 million prize and title of “Survivor.” Read how he pulled that one off here.

CBS was first in ratings with a 1.8 rating/7 share in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic and in total viewers with an average of 8.3 million, according to preliminary numbers. “Survivor” and its reunion show combined for those numbers.

None of the other Big 4 broadcast networks aired an original episode in primetime.

NBC was second in ratings with a 0.9/4 and in viewers with 3.6 million.

ABC was third in ratings with a 0.6/2 and in viewers with 2.7 million.

Fox was fourth in ratings with a 0.5/2 and in viewers with 1.9 million.

Univision and Telemundo tied for fifth in ratings, both with a 0.4/2. Univision was fifth in total viewers with 1.4 million, Telemundo was seventh with 1.1 million.

The CW was seventh in ratings with a 0.3/1 and sixth in viewers with 1.2 million. At 8 p.m., the youngest-skewing broadcaster’s “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” special had a 0.3/1 and 1.4 million viewers. At 9, a Top 12 Christmas Movies countdown got a 0.2/1 and 1.1 million viewers.

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