ratings

Big Brother Debuts to Strong Ratings

Big Brother, the underappreciated Energizer bunny of network reality shows, continues to retain an iron grip on its loyal viewership. Last night’s thirteenth season premiere averaged nearly 8 million viewers and earned a 2.7 rating with voyeurs aged 18 to 49. That made it the top show of the night in the key demo, handily outdrawing Fox’s 8 p.m. installment of So You Think You Can Dance and ABC’s 9 p.m. newcomer Expedition Impossible. If preliminary numbers hold up, it’ll be the show’s best debut since 2007; one reason for the upward bump is that CBS wisely moved the Thursday show into a 9 p.m. time slot rather than the lower-viewed 8 p.m. leadoff position. Meanwhile — and this is a big-time spoiler for those Big Brother fans who don’t monitor the live feeds — the Internets are saying that contestant Evil Dick appears to have left the game. A CBS rep didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Big Brother Debuts to Strong Ratings