CBS President Les Moonves Monday hailed the strong ratings for the first episode of Survivor II, which followed Sunday's Super Bowl game. Moonves noted in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that "even with a crummy game," ratings for the reality series had "thrilled" network executives. CBS Executive Vice President David Poltrack, the network's chief ratings tracker, told the Washington Post. "The phenomenon of Survivor has not been diminished at all since the season finale of the summer. ... It has taken off right where it left off." On the East Coast, Survivor II aired between 10:17 and 11:21 p.m. and drew 43.6 million viewers, holding 75 percent of the audience that tuned in for the CBS post-game show. The only show led into by the Super Bowl to best that result was a 1996 special episode of Friends. CBS said that it plans to rerun the premiere episode on Wednesday night at 8:00 p.m. for everyone "who may have gone to bed before Sunday's show went on." Additional episodes will begin airing on Thursday.

Source: Studio Briefing