News Broadcasting
CBS unveils identities of castaways for ‘Survivor: Thailand’
MUMBAI: US television network CBS has unveiled the identities of the 16 castaways participating in Survivor: Thailand. The series premiere’s 19 September.
The castaways include 60-year-old land broker Jill Billingsley, real estate agent Erin Colins and professional firefighter Stephanie Dill.
The show, hosted by Jeff Probst, will strand 16 Americans on Koh Tarutao, a remote island off the southern coast of Thailand, during the region’s dangerous monsoon season. Executive producer Mark Burnett is promising that the show will include brand new challenges, new rules and new twists like nothing ever seen in previous installments. As the castaways are faced with harsh weather and the uncertainty of what’s coming next, each person must attempt to outwit, outplay and outlast the others in order to become the ultimate survivor.
In the US last season both Survivor: Africa and Survivor: Marquesas finished in the top 5 in viewers and placed fifth and sixth in adults 18-49. The latter averaged 20.8 million viewers (#4) while the former averaged 20.7 million viewers (#5). In adults 18-49 the former ranked #5 for the season with an 8.4 rating, followed by the latter at #6 with an 8.3 rating.
News Broadcasting
News TV viewership jumps 33 per cent as West Asia war draws audiences
BARC Week 8 data shows news share rising to 8 per cent despite T20 World Cup
NEW DELHI:Â Even as individual television news channel ratings remain under a temporary pause, the genre itself is seeing a clear surge in audience attention.
According to the latest data from Broadcast Audience Research Council India, television news recorded a 33 per cent jump in genre share in Week 8 of 2026, covering February 28 to March 6.
The news genre accounted for 8 per cent of total television viewership during the week, up from 6 per cent the previous week. The spike in attention coincided with escalating geopolitical tensions involving the United States, Israel and Iran, which have kept global headlines firmly fixed on West Asia.
The rise is notable because it came at a time when cricket was dominating television screens. The high-stakes stages of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, including the Super 8 fixtures and semi-finals, were being broadcast during the same period.
Despite the cricket frenzy, viewers appeared to be toggling between sport and global affairs, boosting the overall share of news programming.
The surge in genre share comes even as the government has enforced a one-month pause on publishing ratings for individual news channels. The move followed regulatory scrutiny of the television ratings ecosystem.
While channel-level rankings remain temporarily out of sight, the genre-level data suggests that when global tensions escalate, audiences continue to turn to television news for real-time updates.
