Wednesday TV Ratings: CBS’ ‘Big Brother’ Scores Big in Pandemic Return
The Wednesday, August 5 premiere of Season 22 of CBS’s summer staple, Big Brother, easily grabbed the most attention from viewers, curious to not only have original programming in a quiet August month but also to see if the show would function any differently during a pandemic.
The answer? Other than host Julie Chen Moonves working solo with no studio audience and the two-week quarantine for the 16 houseguests, it was business as usual on the reality hit. The premiere won the night in the 18-49 demo with a strong 1.0 rating. In total viewers, it tied with its CBS timeslot lead-in, freshman competition series Tough As Nails, which only grabbed a 0.5 rating but a strong 3.7 million viewers.
The fifth episode of ABC’s new sitcom United We Fall dipped slightly to its series low (3.3 million viewers) but it wasn’t such a drop from the previous airings that the network should be fearful of waning interest.
Here’s the breakdown for Wednesday, August 5, 2020 (numbers are fast-affiliate based):
| Time | Show | Adults 18-49 rating | Total Viewers (millions) |
| 8 p.m. | Tough As Nails (CBS) | 0.5 | 3.7 |
| United We Fall (ABC) | 0.5 | 3.3 | |
| MasterChef – R (Fox) | 0.4 | 1.5 | |
| Chicago Med – R (NBC) | 0.3 | 3.0 | |
| The 100 (CW) | 0.1 | 505,000 | |
| 8:30 p.m. | The Goldbergs – R (ABC) | 0.4 | 2.0 |
| 9:00 p.m. | Big Brother – P (CBS) | 1.0 | 3.7 |
| Chicago Fire – R (NBC) | 0.3 | 3.0 | |
| The Conners – R (ABC) | 0.3 | 1.8 | |
| Coroner – P (CW) | 0.1 | 719,000 | |
| 9:30 p.m. | American Housewife – R (ABC) | 0.3 | 1.5 |
| 10 p.m. | Chicago P.D. – R (NBC) | 0.4 | 3.4 |
| Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (ABC) | 0.3 | 1.3 |
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