This season of Australian Survivor was the biggest of any Australian series of the show, with total audience up 4% on season one, which held the previous record.
The record audiences were driven by viewers catching up with episodes in their own time on tenplay. It recorded the biggest BVOD audiences for a season of Australian Survivor ever, up 22% year-on-year.
This season had an average national audience of 1.02 million viewers including 769,000 capital city viewers.
Australian Survivor’s total audience average, including five city metro television audiences and online catch-up viewing plus television encores, was 878,000.
The single most-watched episode of the season was the penultimate episode with 739,000 overnight viewers tuning in. It also set the record for being the biggest episode ever outside a finale.
On social, Twitter total impressions were up 24% year on year to 10.8 million while Twitter followers were up 29% year on year to 16,748. There were more than 37,500 tweets sent across the season using the official #SurvivorAU hashtag. On Instagram, the season achieved a reach of over five million while followers were up 109% year-on-year to 47,700.
On tenplay, this season of Australia Survivor achieved 13.8 million video segment views, 839,000 unique video visitors and 4.1 million view starts. The Jury Villa on tenplay averaged a seven-day BVOD audience of 32,000, the highest ever for the show.
The single most watched episode on tenplay was episode 22, which saw the “Sh” alliance of Sharn Coombes, Shane Gould and last remaining contender Shonee Fairfax flush out an immunity idol and blindside a Monika Radulovic. The episode had a seven-day BVOD audience of 67,000 – the biggest ever audience for an episode of Australian Survivor on tenplay.
For the final night, 1.18 million viewers tuned in to see Shane beat Sharn in the final vote to win $500,000 (The Winner Announced). Earlier in the evening, 1.16 million viewers watched the Grand Finale, which saw Brian throw his hat in the water, ultimately leading to his elimination. The Reunion episode was watched by 797,000 viewers nationally, peaking at 1.12 million.
Across the capital cities, The Grand Finale had an audience of 862,000, peaking at 1.02 million, The Winner Announced was watched by 878,000, peaking at 995,000, and the Reunion saw 610,000 tune in. This peaked at 830,000.
The Grand Finale achieved the biggest Survivor Grand Finale audience ever, The Winner Announced was up year on year and was the #1 program in 25-54s, while the Reunion episode was the biggest Reunion episode ever.
The finale dominated social media with #SurvivorAU trending #1 across Australia and #5 worldwide. Across the evening, there were over 6,000 tweets referencing the official #SurvivorAU hashtag and almost 375,000 Twitter impressions across the day. Contestants Brian, Shane, Sharn and Benji also trended across Australia with Sharn also trending worldwide.
Network Ten chief content officer Beverley McGarvey said: “Australian Survivor: Champions V Contenders attracted the biggest ever total audience for the Australian series. This season, audiences were introduced to new, engaging contestants, while also seeing some of Australia’s much-loved Champions in a different light and out of their element. Full of epic blindsides and some of the toughest challenges, this season of Australian Survivor was truly one of the best.
“I’d like to thank everyone involved with the show including the contestants for their passion and determination to play the game, our wonderful host Jonathan LaPaglia, our production partners Endemol Shine Australia for their brilliant work in creating such a masterpiece of a production, our commercial sponsors for their invaluable support in bringing this season to life, and to everyone at Ten who worked hard to make this season such a success.
“I would like to congratulate both finalists – Sharn and Shane. Both demonstrated incredible tenacity, determination and resilience to outwit, outplay and outlast the other 24 contestants this season. Shane was one of the strongest game players who over and over again demonstrated her outstanding mental strength and stamina. She is truly an inspiration and a deserving winner.”
Australian Survivor: Champions V Contenders
Key audience statistics
• The Winner Announced, National: 1.18 million viewers
• The Winner Announced, Capital Cities: 878,000 viewers
• The Winner Announced, Capital Cities: 38.7% commercial share in people 25-54, 40.7% share in under 55s, 32.3% share in total people
• Grand Finale, National: 1.63 million viewers
• Grand Finale, Capital Cities: 862,000 viewers
• Grand Finale, Capital Cities: 35.0% commercial share in people 25-54, 36.1% share in under 55s, 28.6% share in total people
• Reunion, National: 797,000 viewers.
• Reunion, Capital Cities: 610,000 viewers.
• Reunion, Capital Cities: 35.3% commercial share in people 25-54, 36.9% share in under 55s, 28.7% share in total people.
• 2018 Season Average, National: 1.02 million viewers
• 2018 Season Average, Total Audience, Capital Cities: 878,000 viewers
• 2018 Season Average, Capital Cities: 769,000 viewers
• 2018 Season Reach: 7.0 million capital city viewers and 2.9 million regional viewers
• 2018 Video Segment Views on tenplay: 13.8 million.
• 2018 Video Starts on tenplay: 839,000.
• 2018 Unique Video Visitors on tenplay: 4.1 million.
• Facebook Season Total Reach: 14,941,142 million
• Facebook Total Engagements: 245,884
• Facebook Average Weekly Total Engagements: 22,353
• Facebook: 111,562 “likes”, up 20% on 2017.
• Instagram: 47,700 followers, up 109% on 2017
• Instagram: 5,039,687 total Instagram reach
• Instagram: 30,730 average post reach
• Twitter: 16,748 followers, up 29% on 2017
• Twitter Total Impressions: 10.8 million, up 24% on 2017.