Young adults tune out new ‘Survivor’

Thursday was the first night of the February ratings “sweeps,” which help local stations set rates for commercial time. Judging by the early evidence, it might be a long month for the TV networks.

CBS’ premiere of “Survivor: Panama” (19.3 million viewers) lost almost a quarter of its young-adult audience compared with last year’s “Survivor: Palau,” according to early data from Nielsen Media Research. And over on NBC, “ER” (13.8 million) sank to its lowest young-adult rating.

Overall, CBS easily won the night thanks largely to “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” (28 million). But NBC has no reason to despair just yet: It’s expected to skate to huge ratings with its coverage of the Winter Olympics, which start next week.