Big Picture

Ashlee & Vincent Take NY Plus, Nicole Kidman hangs out with her family and Bradley Cooper is a grizzly guy. The latest pics!

MORE PHOTOS +

Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Adobe's Flash Player. Get the latest Flash player.

Fashion Police

Angelina: Going Grey! Plus, Christina Hendricks, Vanessa Hudgens, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Michelle Williams and Kristen Wiig. Rate the highs and lows!

MORE PHOTOS +

Top Galleries

MORE PHOTOS +

Our Partners

Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Adobe's Flash Player. Get the latest Flash player.

New Survivor Swims Ahead, Yet Sinks

Fri., Sep. 21, 2007 7:07 PM PDT by Natalie Finn

It beat the Emmys, it beat Sunday football and it beat 60 Minutes. The only thing Survivor: China couldn't top was itself.

The pioneering reality series' 15th-season premiere drew in 15.4 million immunity-seekers Thursday, great numbers for most shows but an all-time low for a Survivor debut.

Viewership was down 14 percent from the February premiere of last season's Fijian installment, which took place during—yet miles away from—a government coup, and down 25 percent from last fall's Survivor: Cook Islands, which brought in 18 million pairs of eyes.

However, Cook Islands also debuted with its own built-in controversy (and one less major automotive sponsor), thanks to its segregated-tribes-by-race gimmick. The season went on to average 15.8 million viewers.

Even the series' premiere, back on May 31, 2000, attracted 15.5 million curious souls who were wondering just what sort of show this Mark Burnett fellow had come up with. In August of that year, more than 51 million people turned out to watch Richard Hatch best his fellow competitors in Borneo.

CBS was quick to point out, however, that Survivor: China easily won the night, besting everything in its time slot as well as everything else in prime-time, including Fox's tag team of Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader and Don't Forget the Lyrics and repeats on NBC, ABC and the CW.

But, the entirety of Survivor: Fiji averaged 14.8 million viewers earlier this year, a decrease of more than 50 percent from Survivor's zenith, the second-season Australian Outback, which had a series-high 29.8 million-strong following.

This sort of waning interest in what the network has come to rely on as a perennial hit helps explain why CBS—along with all its competitors—is doing everything it can think of to beef up its Internet presence and attract fans through a variety of channels.

While you've been able to catch up with episodes of Survivor and behind-the-scenes video on cbs.com for some time now, the Website is now offering a Survivor: China Fantasy League, a fantasy sports-inspired game in which you can actually assemble a team of contestants and earn points based on how well they do on the show. And, of course, you can trade whomever you feel is underperforming either online or using a cell phone.

Also making a splash on the Web this season is How I Met Your Mother, which, starting Tuesday, will be available on iTunes for the first time.

CBS is rolling out a whole series of multimedia extras in connection with the Monday-night sitcom, including ringtones, Barneyism voicetones and interactive online content such as Marshall and Lily's "wedding album" and "honeymoon video," and a three-minute wrap-up of the first two seasons narrated by Bob Saget to help new viewers suit up for the year ahead.

There are also MySpace and FaceBook pages devoted to the gang, as well as a betting site, slapcountdown.com, on which you can bet down to the second when Marshall is going to next slap Barney.

"If you can download shows on the Internet, we want to be downloadable," series cocreators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas said in a statement. "If you can watch a show on your phone, we want to be there. When microchip brain implants come along, we want to be first in line."

Meanwhile, Fox is also striving to get the word out, announcing Friday that the season premieres of returning series such as Bones, Prison Break and 'Til Death and the series debuts of Back to You, K-Ville and Kitchen Nightmares will be available for free on iTunes for two weeks after their broadcast premieres.