MediaWeek.com's Marc Berman reports that anyone who thinks Survivor fever is waning may want to rethink that opinion. Despite the havoc that Hurricane Isabel unleashed on portions of the East Coast, last night's 90-minute debut of Survivor: Pearl Islands still pillaged its competition and scored a hefty 13.8/21 rating/share from 8-9:30 PM according to the preliminary Nielsen overnight ratings.
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Those numbers are on par with opening levels of Survivor: Thailand on the comparable year ago night (13.6/21 on Sept. 19, 2002). Survivor: Pearl Islands was the top rated show of the evening, fueling CBS to a 46 percent advantage over second place NBC. From 9:30-11 PM, a 90-minute repeat CSI scored a time period winning 11.0/17.
For those wondering, the other reality television show of the evening wasn't nearly so lucky, as FOX's Temptation Island 3 continued its previous train-wreck ratings performance with a 2.8/ 4 fifth place finsih in its timeslot.