‘Big Brother’ Ratings Average 5.1 Million Multiplatform Viewers This Summer, Up 8% From Last Year (EXCLUSIVE)

“Big Brother” is ending its Season 28 run with an average multiplatform audience of 5.1 million in live+7 viewers, up 8% from last summer. According to CBS, that’s 46% higher than summer rival “Love Island USA” Season 8 on Peacock (3.5 million).

According to the Eye network, viewership of “Big Brother” Season 28 full episodes and live feeds on CBS, Paramount+ and Pluto TV has consisted of 14.8 billion minutes, up 9% (13.6 billion) from last summer.

The network also said “Big Brother,” which hit its landmark 1000th episode this season, also scored its most-streamed full-episode summer viewership ever on Paramount+. And its first five Sunday episodes saw consecutive week-to-week gains, CBS reported.

As part of its celebration of hitting 1,000 original episodes — the most ever for a primetime series — “Big Brother” was presented two Guinness World Records titles: “Most Episodes of a Primetime TV Series” and “Most Episodes of a Competitive Reality TV Series.”

This year, between “Big Brother” and “Big Brother: Unlocked,” the series produced more than 52 hours of programming, the most original hours in franchise history.

CBS also said that this year’s “Big Brother” generated more than 25 million social interactions, the most of any broadcast program outside of sports. According to the network, engagement was up 116% (10.1 million vs. 4.7 million last season), viewers were up 162% (257 million vs. 98 million last season) and new followers were up 118% (179,000 vs. 82,000 last season).

The “Big Brother” Season 28 closer will air as a live, 90-minute finale on Thursday, Oct. 1 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS and Paramount+. Rick Devens (who might become the first “Survivor” alum to also win “Big Brother”), Drew Campbell and Taylor Brown are the final three players looking to be crowned winner, which comes with a $750,000 prize.