The planning for Survivor 50 has been in the works for over two years and it has seemingly paid off.
The premiere episode of the evergreen reality series helped CBS to its most-watched Wednesday night in four years, since the finale episode of Season 42 on May 25, 2022.
The three-hour opener (yes, three hours) was the night’s number one show in both total viewers and adults aged 25-54, averaging 5.06M viewers. It peaked with 6.18m viewers in its first half-hour but held on to at least 90% of its audience each subsequent half-hour, per Nielsen.
It was up 26% from its fall 2025 premiere in total viewers and up +19% from its spring 2025 premiere.
CBS said that its total viewership on the night was 81% higher than second-place NBC.
The 50th iteration of the Jeff Probst-fronted show featured some of the show’s best-known stars over the years including The White Lotus creator Mike White.
Joining White in Fiji in the race to $1M were Jenna Lewis-Dougherty, Colby Donaldson, Stephenie Lagrossa Kendrick, Cirie Fields, Ozzy Lusth, Benjamin Wade, Aubry Bracco, Chrissy Hofbeck, Christian Hubicki, Angelina Keeley, Rick Devens, Jonathan Young, Dee Valladares, Emily Flippen, Q Burdette, Tiffany Ervin, Charlie Davis, Genevieve Mushaluk, Kamilla Karthigesu, Kyle Fraser, Joseph Hunter, Savannah Louie and Rizo Velovic.
In the episode, Lewis-Dougherty, from Season one, was the first to be voted out, despite her trying to get Fields booted. “First in, first out,” she said. Fraser, whp won Season 48, unfortunately also left after injuring his ankle during the challenge.
Mark Burnett, Jeff Probst, Matt VanWagenen, Kahaia Pearson and Jesse Jensen exec produce the series, which returns next week with a one and a half-hour episode, leading in to Padma Lakshmi’s America’s Culinary Cup.