The Question, Wednesday 6/26/13: Will Big Brother Get Bigger?

Tonight CBS enters phase two of its turning on of the summer lights with its three-night spectacular Big Brother. Last season finally snapped Big Brother's improbable growth streak, though at least some of the blame probably belongs with the Summer Olympics derailing the show's early weeks. There's no such excuse this year, though it does get to deal with Fox's potent MasterChef in the Wednesday 8:00 hour. Will Big Brother get bigger? That's The Question for Wednesday, June 26, 2013.

Big Brother Last Season

2.6 (premiere, Thu 7/12/12, -7% y2y) 2.13 (Wednesday average, -24% y2y) 2.15 (Thursday average, -19% y2y) 2.19 (Sunday average, -19% y2y) 2.5 (finale, Wed 9/19/12, -14% y2y) The War of 18-49

My guess is that Big Brother as a franchise is probably healthier than it appeared last season when it was one of the few originals that had the Olympics head-to-head. I also doubt that it's as healthy as during its growth seasons. I say this show will settle into roughly a Survivor pattern of approximately league average declines. That means this premiere should drop in the 10% range from last year's 2.6.

Over/Under: 2.35.

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