CBS fantasy island

  • Over 28 million households-or slightly more than one in four in the U.S.-watched the finale at some point.
  • CBS raked in between $40 million and $50 million in advertising revenue for the two-hour finale and post-show interview.
  • Commercials in the finale cost as much as $600,000 per 30-second spot (a spot in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? costs $250,000); CBS suggests spots in the first episode of Survivor II following the Super Bowl may start at $600,000.
  • The finale was the 11th-most-watched network series broadcast ever; taking into account specials and sports telecasts, it was the 78th most watched.
  • In this broadcast year, only the Super Bowl, with 88.7 million viewers, had more viewers than the Survivor finale, which had 51 million viewers. (The Academy Awards drew 46.3 million.)
  • The finale beat all five broadcast-network competitors combined: +101% in house- holds; +168% in viewers; +212% in adults 18-49; +197% in adults 25-54; +277% in adults 18-34.
  • The Myers Report searched the Reuters and Dow Jones Factiva news-retrieval database and determined that, on its final day, Survivor garnered 540 stories nationwide. Comparatively, the "Who Shot J.R.''episode of Dallas in 1991 attracted only 448 on the day of the episode, and the last Seinfeld two years ago got 398.