Or maybe try hosting naked. That's right, the two-hour finale nabbed roughly five million more viewers than this year's Academy Awards telecast. The network says some 72 million people watched at least part of the finale. For a summer program, and in an era when hundreds of cable channels are competing with the broadcast nets for viewer attention, Survivor 's performance wasn't too shabby. But in the grand scheme of things, Survivor landed nowhere near the top of the ratings heap.
Most observers agree, however, that the days of network dominance are long gone.
The show logged a 22.5 household rating and 36 share, and an 18.1 rating and 44 share among adults 18-49, which was enough to outperform every previous episode of Survivor . For example, when castaway Colleen Haskell answered a question about her relationship with Greg Buis, she said she was covering up for another steamy island fling. Inquiring minds were begging for the follow-up question, but Gumbel failed to deliver. Same goes for any questions about Greg's decision to shy away from the press, or any questions about Kelly Wiglesworth's and Richard's run-ins with the law . The Australian Outback , he later acknowledged that executive producer Mark Burnett told him he wouldn't be eligible.