If you can’t take the kitchen, get out of Fox’s primetime. On Wednesday, the Season 11 premiere of “MasterChef” — a “legends” season — was strong enough to carry Fox and freshman baking competition “Crime Scene Kitchen” to a first-place finish among adults 18-49.
Of course, it helps that Fox, unlike its “Big 4” competition, doesn’t schedule the relatively low-rated 10 o’clock hour. Even so, Fox finished fourth last night counting viewers of all ages.
ABC finished first in terms of total-viewer averages last night, drawing 3.09 million from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. NBC was close behind with an average of 3.06 million total viewers.
Fox was first in ratings with a 0.5 rating/4 share in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic, but fourth in total viewers with an average of 2.1 million, according to preliminary numbers. At 8 p.m., the “MasterChef” Season 11 premiere scored a 0.6/4 and 2.4 million viewers. Week 2 of Joel McHale-hosted competition “Crime Scene Kitchen” at 9 received a 0.4/3 and 1.9 million viewers.
ABC and Univision tied for second in ratings, each with a 0.4/3. ABC, as mentioned above, was first in viewers with 3.09 million, Univision was fifth with 1.3 million.
For ABC, “Press Your Luck” at 8 got a 0.5/4 and 3.3 million viewers. At 9, “The $100,000 Pyramid” earned a 0.5/3 and 3.5 million viewers. At 10, “A Million Little Things” drew a 0.3/2 and 2.4 million viewers.
NBC and CBS tied for fourth in ratings, both with a 0.3/2. As previously noted, NBC was second in total viewers with 3.06 million, while CBS was third in total viewers with 2.3 million.
For NBC, primetime was packed with drama encores.
For CBS, a new episode of “Kids Say the Darndest Things” at 8 had a 0.4/3 and 2.9 million viewers. Reruns followed.
Telemundo was sixth in ratings with a 0.2/2 and in viewers with 793,000.
The CW was seventh in ratings with a 0.1/1 and in viewers with 655,000. At 8, “Kung Fu” garnered a 0.1/1 and 829,000 viewers. At 9, the “Nancy Drew” season finale managed a 0.1/0 and 482,000 viewers.