RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Hollywood Game Night’ Debuts Soft, ‘Big Brother’ & ‘The Winner Is’ Down, ‘Wipeout’ Hits Low
There was a lot of talk about Syfy’s Sharknado on social media on Thursday night but on NBC it was game night. Hollywood Game Night (1.3/4) actually. Hosted by Glee’s Jane Lynch, the Sean Hayes created show features teams of three A-listers and one contestant teaming up to compete in various challenges for a $25,000 prize. The one-hour debut at 10 PM saw Friends alum Matthew Perry and Lisa Kudrow joining Alyson Hannigan, Hawaii Five-O’s Daniel Dae Kim, Martin Short, and Kristen Bell in the festivities. The highest-rated show of its slot, Hollywood Game Night also matched the results of the encore show of the Macy’s fireworks last week for NBC’s best showing in the slot since a April 18 airing of Hannibal. However, HGN was also down 24% from the August 13, 2012 NBC debut of reality series Stars Earn Stripes. Having debuted back on June 10 and aired the next Monday, The Winner Is (1.0/3) made its Thursday premiere last night before Hollywood Game Night. The Nick Lachey-hosted game show/singing competition mash-up cratered 47% from its last airing on June 17 after The Voice finale.
At 9 PM on CBS, Big Brother (2.0/6) made this season’s Thursday debut. The live one-hour show was tied with its time slot neighbor Fox’s Hell’s Kitchen (2.0/6) for the highest-rated show of the night – though BB did pull in more viewers with 6.15 million to Kitchen’s 5.11 million. While up 18% from last Wednesday’s show and even with its July 11 show, BB was down 23% from its Season 14 Thursday debut on July 12, 2012. Otherwise it was all encores on CBS on Thursday with the 8 PM airing of The Big Bang Theory proving the most watched show of the night with 7.96 million viewers. CBS and Fox were tied for the top spot among adults 18-49 with 1.6/5 each while CBS won in total viewers with 6.003 million watching.
Off for a week because of the July 4th holiday, Hell’s Kitchen was back with the prerequisite outbursts by Gordon Ramsay and eliminations down to a final four as the show heads towards its Season 11 finale on July 25. Debuting in the 9 PM time slot, Kitchen dipped 5% from its last original on June 27.
Having also not run originals last week for the Independence Day holiday, ABC’s lineup may be wishing for more time off. Wipeout (0.9/3) returned last night down 10% from its last original two weeks ago. That’s a series low for the obstacle course reality show. Motive (0.8/3) and Rookie Blue (1.0/3) also hit lows on Thursday. The freshman Canadian import was down 11% from its June 27 show while Blue was down 10%.
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