CBS isn't playing nice with NBC's Friends. The Eye network is pitting its follow-up to the smash hit Survivor against the sitcom powerhouse. The new Thursday night war proves It's all here for Must See advertisers.
Survivor: Australian Outback will premiere after the Super Bowl on January 28. Then the show will be moved to its regular slot four days later, the not-so-coincidental start of February sweeps.
But it's advertisers that may end up paying the extreme price. Ad rates for Friends already command the high six-figures for a :30 spot.
After the summer success of the original Survivor, sponsorship rates skyrocketed from $4 million to $12 million for 13 episodes. That averages out between $500,000 and $600,000 per :30 commercial. Sponsors get top-priority as well, leaving little room for other advertisers to pay an even higher rate.
Perhaps it was the final episode that sparked the rate increase. The finale was the second-most-watched show of the 1999-2000 season, second only to the Super Bowl. CBS raked in $600,000 for :30 ad time, a $400,000 increase from the previous episodes.
An estimated 51 million viewers watched Richard Hatch win a million dollars. By comparison, 75 million viewers tuned in for the last episode of Seinfeld.
Not everyone is sold on Survivor's salability, though. Immediately after CBS announced a new Survivor would air in early 2001, ad agency execs were quick to shoot down the show's success. After all, the original Survivor aired during the off-season, competing against reruns. Now, the show will be face-to-face with proven heavyweights.
CBS claims the move isn't a direct attack on NBC. Network execs say they're just trying to improve their Thursday ratings. Viewership is down 21% from last year. 48 Hours has been less than lackluster in its 8 p.m. timeslot, bringing in a 2.5 rating as opposed to Friends with an 11.1.
Higher ratings equals higher ad rates, which is part of the reason CBS made the move. When CBS pitched the original Survivor to advertisers, they speculated the show would bring in a 6 rating. It was a hard sell to convince each of the nine companies to throw in a $4 million sponsorship on a show they'd never even seen - or even heard of!
But then the show did the unthinkable. It outpulled the ratings projections. The nine sponsors were the real winners, paying a paltry $200,000 for a :30 spot.
Moving Survivor from Wednesdays to Thursdays also increases CBS' chances of snagging advertising geared for the weekends. That includes movie advertisers, one of the highest-paying marketers on television.
Survivor II will probably steal a little bit of Friends' thunder but not enough to make a huge dent in CBS' programming problems. However, execs say they're banking on a wide audience that may come from other sources, not just NBC.
CBS continues to fight for its place in primetime. But if big bucks advertisers don't get their money's worth, it's the network that will be caught in the Eye of Survivor's storm.
