An estimated 17-18 million people tuned in Wednesday to watch a bunch of young whippernsnappers gang up on a pleasant 62-year-old cancer-survivor lady and kick her off their TV show, overnight ratings show. “Lord of the Flies,” anyone?
The show, of course, was CBS’ much-hyped “Survivor.” And while Wednesday’s debut was strong, it still wasn’t good enough to knock off that real ratings survivor, ABC’s “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.”
For those who missed “Survivor,” but for some reason still care what happened, this is what went down: 16 people were stranded on a deserted island and by the end of the hour only 15 were left.
Per the show’s rules, one person must be voted out at the end of each installment. On Wednesday, the first cut was Sonja Christopher, a gray-haired musician and former cancer patient, from Walnut Creek, Calif.
On the CBS Website (www.cbs.com), Christopher took the high road and said her castaways did the right thing. “They are a terrific group of people, very strong physically, and I think in their shoes, I would have probably done they same thing — vote out the weakest member,” she said.
At the end of the show’s 13-week run, there is to be just one castaway standing — with that person receiving $1 million. CBS (and the castaways) already know how this all turns out, of course, but nobody’s talking.
Yet?
