Big Brother Season 23 handed CBS the keys to an impressive Wednesday night. The long-running reality series returned to CBS scoring a 1.0 rating in the adults 18-49 demographic and 4.01 million viewers, becoming both the highest-rated and most-watched program of the evening.
The latest season premiere of Big Brother, which came after a bit of a casting shuffle, surpassed the 2020 premiere. Wednesday’s opener saw minor gains in viewership but steady ratings from the Season 22 Premiere in August 2020 (3.66M, 1.0) .
Later in the evening CBS welcomed back Love Island for junior season. Love Island drew in a 1.80 million viewers and a 0.43 rating in the 18-49 demo. While ratings remained stable from the 2020 season, viewership dropped 27% from the Season 2 premiere.
Despite impressive showings, both Big Brother and Love Island have some catching up to do to match their pre-pandemic season openers.
Elsewhere in Wednesday Primetime, the Stanley Cup Final on NBC – which saw the Tampa Bay Lightning walking away victorious – ushered the network into a quiet evening of local programming.
The $100,000 Pyramid was a winner for ABC, with the latest episode raking in 3.78 million viewers and a 0.5 rating. The Michael Strahan-hosted game show followed Press Your Luck and came before the Card Sharks finale.
The newest Master Chef was Fox’s highest-rating and most-watched program on its Wednesday slate, bringing in 2.43 million viewers and a 0.6 rating.
Kung Fu was the most-watched program for the CW on Wednesday, drawing in 0.83 million viewers and keeping steady with a 0.1 rating. The latest In The Dark installment also drew in a 0.1 rating and aired to 0.43 million viewers.
