RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ Steady, Fox Wins Night, ‘Wipeout’ & ‘Motive’ Hit New Lows

There wasn’t an NBA Finals game last night like last Thursday, but there was still heat on Hell’s Kitchen (2.0/7). Up against a surprisingly strongly rated NBA Draft over on on ESPN, which ran well past primetime, the Gordon Ramsay series pitted past winners against this season’s final five. In the end no one was eliminated, and the series was even with its June 20 show in adults 18-49 and saw a 4% bump in total viewership to 5.4 million. That’s the best the cooking show has done in viewers this year since the 5.6 million who watched its Season 11 premiere May 23. Following Ramsay was the season finale of Does Someone Have To Go? (0.9/3). The workplace reality show where employees take over their companies and hand out pink slips started off unimpressively on May 23 and pretty much stayed there during its short run. Its season end was even with last week’s show, with a 5% rise in viewership to 2.3 million – less than half its Hell’s Kitchen lead-in. With Hell’s Kitchen the highest-rated show of the night, Fox won Thursday in the demo, with CBS pulling in the most viewers. The latter network’s 8 PM repeat of The Big Bang Theory was the most-watched show of the night with 7.87 million viewers.

CBS, NBC and the CW were all encores last night.

Having had pre-emptions galore because of the NBA Finals the past few weeks, ABC was back last night with a full slate, though the result saw some new lows. Wipeout (0.9/3) kicked off the night. The obstacle course reality show fell 25% from its last original May 30 to a series low. Freshman Canadian import Motive (0.9/3) fared exactly the same, dropping 25% from its last new show four weeks ago to a season low. Fellow Great White North import Rookie Blue (1.1/4) took a softer hit, with the police drama dipping just 9% from its last new show May 30.

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