Big Brother will air its 1,000th episode on Thursday, becoming the first US primetime entertainment programme to reach the milestone. The landmark arrives during an improving summer for the long-running CBS reality series, suggesting continued audience strength for established reality formats.

In its 28th season, Big Brother is averaging 5.21 million viewers per episode after seven days of cross-platform viewing, up 10% year on year. Viewing among adults aged 25-54 rose 21% and among 18-49s rose 15%, while total viewing is projected to exceed 15 billion minutes, including live feeds; CBS also says 2.9 million Survivor viewers have sampled the series.