Big Brother: Celebrity Edition finally returned to CBS after three years.

The spinoff series of the long-running competition series made a splash with its premiere topping demo ratings on Wednesday night. Per fast affiliates, the CBS series nabbed a 0.7 rating in the 18-49 demo and 3.66 million viewers. The houseguests this season are Cynthia Bailey-Hill, Teddi Mellencamp, Todd Bridges, Todrick Hall, Chris Kattan, Carson Kressley, Shanna Moakler, Mirai Nagasu, Lamar Odom, Miesha Tate and Chris Kirkpatrick.

While Celebrity Big Brother‘s Season 3 debut marked yet another primetime win for CBS, the series was obviously significantly down from previous pre-pandemic premieres. Before Wednesday evening, the most recent season premiered in January 2019 (1.4, 5.40M) and concluded in February 2019 (0.9, 3.86M). Like most other primetime shows, Celebrity Big Brother took a pretty noticeable hit with the pandemic. For comparison, the series debut in February 2018 earned a 1.8 demo rating and 7.25 million viewers. 

In the same hour, a repeat showing of Chicago Med (0.4, 3.68M) earned the night’s largest viewership. NBC and its Chicago trio were in repeats for the second consecutive week. 

The momentum of Big Brother: Celebrity Edition carried over to the 9 p.m. hour where The Amazing Race was the highest-rated and most-watched program (0.6, 3.61M). The Amazing Race nearly matched last week in both measures.

The night ended with a repeat of Chicago P.D. (0.4, 3.01M) leading the final hour, besting new episodes of Good Sam (0.3, 2.49M) and The Chase (0.3 2.12M)

ABC’s Wednesday slate peaked with The Goldbergs (0.6, 3.38M), which rose in the demo from the previous week alongside The Wonder Years, The Conners and Home Economics.

Fox’s night saw 0.4 demo ratings across its Wednesday programming, which features I Can See Your Voice (0.4, 2.36M) and Next Level Chef (0.4, 2.05M).

The CW’s DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (0.1, 0.68M) and Batwoman (0.1, 0,54M) had steady nights, both hitting season highs in viewers. The evening marked The CW’s most-watched Wednesday primetime since August 4, 2021.

Thursday primetime will look a little different with NBC commencing its coverage of the 2022 Winter Olympics. Beyond that, ABC touts two Soul of a Nation presentations while Big Brother: Celebrity Edition returns for another episode on CBS. The CW will be in repeats.