Survivor was still a crowd-pleaser in its 19th outing and, thanks to BBM Canada’s Portable People Meters, has enjoyed one of its strongest seasons to date, capped off by an average 2.8 million viewers for Sunday’s finale on Global.

The Samoa edition — with an average weekly audience of 2.9 million — featured one of the most hated and loved villains of all time in Texas oilman Russell Hantz, who lost the million dollars in the final vote to Survivor winner Natalie White. Over six million watched some part of the broadcast, which started at 8 p.m., according to Global. (All numbers 2+.)

The finale is the most-watched in seven seasons, and marks a 72% increase over last spring’s Survivor: Tocantins ender, which had 1.6 million. Samoa‘s closest competitors were the CTV movies Shrek The Third and The Bourne Supremacy.

PPM has been kind to family co-viewing genres such as reality and sports programming. CTV’s reality Amazing Race generated over three million viewers for its recent finale, while CBC’s Dragons’ Den has enjoyed its strongest season ever with an average 1.7 million viewers.

In an earlier interview with Playback, media buyer Florence Ng of ZenithOptimedia Canada explained why the new BBM measurement system is of particular benefit to family-friendly programs, such as Survivor.

‘With the [old] meter, if one member has already clicked on, the rest of the family wouldn’t worry much about it. But all of a sudden, [with PPM] everyone’s recorded… it’s more accurate,’ she said.

Survivor was also strong stateside where it reportedly nabbed over 14 million viewers on CBS, up against Sunday Night Football on NBC.

The reality vet’s 20th season — Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains — debuts Feb. 11.