The Summer 2021 season finales for NBC’s “American Ninja Warrior” and Fox’s “Hell’s Kitchen” were all notched up in TV ratings among adults 18-49 on Monday. “Ninja Warrior’s” overall viewer tally dwarfed that of the Gordon Ramsay cooking competition, however. See who won “American Ninja Warrior” here, and find out who won “Hell’s Kitchen” here.
No matter, last night was always going to go to ABC, which simulcast its sister cable channel ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” NFL season opener. Last night, the Las Vegas Raiders beat the Baltimore Ravens 33-27 in overtime.
Due to the nature of live sports, the below Nielsen numbers for ABC should be considered subject to significant adjustment. We’ve still included them in this story, but just as a rough estimate. When adjustments for time zones come in, ABC’s below numbers will rise. (And then rise again when Nielsen out-of-home viewing for Monday becomes available.)
For now, ABC was first in ratings with a 1.7 rating in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic and in total viewers with an average of 7.4 million, according to very preliminary numbers. The pregame show ran from 8 to 8:30 p.m. ET, with the game itself following.
Fox was second in ratings with a 0.5 and fourth in total viewers with 2.2 million. Those numbers came directly from the two-hour “Hell’s Kitchen” Season 20 finale.
NBC was third in ratings with a 0.4 and second in total viewers with 3 million. From 8 to 10, the “American Ninja Warrior” Season 13 finale averaged a 0.5 rating and 3.4 million total viewers. At 10, “The Wall” had a 0.3 rating and 2.1 million total viewers.
CBS was fourth in ratings with a 0.3 and third in total viewers with 2.9 million, airing all reruns.
The CW was fifth in ratings with a 0.1 and in total viewers with 626,000. “Roswell, New Mexico” at 8 had a 0.1 rating and 721,000 total viewers. A repeat followed.
We do not have early Nielsen numbers for Spanish-language networks Univision and Telemundo.
Find last Monday’s ratings here.