"Clearly we've exposed certain people to parts of our schedule that haven't been there before, and hopefully a lot of them will like what they see and come back," says CBS television president Leslie Moonves.

"Survivor" has been something of a saviour for CBS, a unit of Viacom Inc.

Its audience grew from the week it premiered right up through last night's finale, in which Richard Hatch became the last person on the island, winning $1 million. The episode was expected to draw anywhere from 35 million to 40 million viewers.

Even more impressive, the show is primarily responsible for lowering the median age of the typical CBS viewer from 53 years old before "Survivor" premiered in May to 48.3 years old.

Advertisers favour viewers under the age of 50 and "getting younger" has been a top priority for the network for the past five years. Now CBS will try to keep those elusive younger viewers on board when the new season starts in October.

"Survivor" has clearly been a financial windfall for the network. It is relatively inexpensive to produce, and CBS had pre-sold the show to eight sponsors months before the series premiered. The decision to make the finale a two-hour event gave the network extra commercial time to sell, with some of the 30-second spots going for more than $600,000 each.

CBS will repeat all 13 episodes of "Survivor" during NBC's Olympics coverage next month, hoping to squeeze a little extra out of the hit. And then it has plans for a second version of "Survivor," this time set in the Australian outback. The new contest will begin airing the night of the Super Bowl, right after the network's coverage of the game.

For the second "Survivor," a CBS spokesman said the original eight sponsors will get first crack at coming on board again.

However, this time the price tag is expected to be higher. According to media buyers, CBS is hoping to use the rates that the finale was getting as a starting off point for the sequel.

Between now and then, CBS will have to do the surviving. Although CBS has several shows that should appeal to a younger audience, such as the comedies "Everybody Loves Raymond" and "King of Queens," as well as dramas including "Judging Amy," getting that message out to viewers hasn't been easy.

Even the acquisitions of professional football and late night talk-show host David Letterman have failed to draw lots of young viewers.

"We've given exposure to a lot of our fall product," Moonves said, adding that the plans for the second "Survivor" series in January are a "great bullet to have in your gun."

Media buyers seem to agree that "Survivor" presents the network with the chance to change its image, though it remains to be seen if CBS will be successful.

"Before, there were a lot of viewers who wouldn't even consider CBS as an option. Now, it is under consideration," said Jon Mandel, chief negotiator for MediaCom, a unit of Grey Global Group. The question is whether CBS's fall lineup will be compelling to young viewers. "Are the programmes for your grandmother's CBS or shows a young person would want to watch? Mandel wonders.

Just as ABC's runaway hit game show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" spawned numerous imitators, the same is true of "Survivor."

Among the so-called reality shows in the works by other networks are ABC's "The Mole," about a scavenger hunt in which one of the contestants is planted by producers to undermine the others. ABC and Fox are also developing shows about contestants who are constantly being pursued either by viewers or bounty hunters. NBC is going ahead with "Chains of Love," a dating show in which a woman is handcuffed to four men for a week and she gradually unshackles each until deciding on the one she wants.

Of course, none of the "Millionaire" knock-offs have worked and CBS and media buyers are doubtful that the slew of shows inspired by "Survivor" will take off either.

"The original is generally the best," notes CBS's Moonves. "Everybody ran out and tried to get a game show, us included, and to the best of my knowledge none of them are on the fall schedule."

The success of "Survivor" also proved that network television still has the power to captivate the nation, even at a time when the industry is facing challenges to hold on to viewers from cable and the Internet. Cast members were featured on the cover of "Newsweek" this week and rival networks such as ABC and NBC are all lobbying to land the contestants for interviews, after, of course, they appear on CBS shows.

The Wall Street Journal