RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘MasterChef’ Wins Night For Fox, ‘American Baking Competition’ Even, ‘Dateline’ Ties Low
As broadcasters ease into summer, Wednesday once again saw a whole lot of cooking on TV. On Gordon Ramsay’s two-hour MasterChef (2.2/7) on Fox, variety seemed to be the spice of the night. In the first hour, the 18 remaining contestants competed as teams cooking a well-balanced meal for 300 picky elementary school students and a cheesecake challenge that saw one hopeful sent home. Then for its second hour MasterChef took the 17 cooks back to the kitchen to work against host Ramsay himself from the ingredients of a mystery box. Of course Ramsay didn’t break a sweat as the cooks went into a frenzy and whipped together his meal in half the allocated time. In the end, it was all about cupcakes and one more cook was sent home. Last summer cycle, MasterChef was the only unscripted show to grow year over year. This season, while down in its debut, the ratings have remained pretty solid for Ramsay’s crew. While even with last week’s fast nationals, the third week of Season 4 of MasterChef saw the show dip 4% from the final numbers for its May 29 show. That 4% figure was also the same amount that TV usage was down among Adults 18-49 last night from 8 PM to 10 PM. The highest-rated and the second most watched show of the night after CBS’ CSI repeat, MasterChef won Wednesday for Fox both in total viewers and among Adults 18-49.
It was all about cookies and s’mores on CBS’ The American Baking Competition (1.0/4). Coming off a low debut last week, the Jeff Foxworthy hosted series remained even with its May 29 premiere.
Amidst encores of The Middle (1.0/4) and Modern Family (1.3/4), the originals on ABC last night were cancelled comedies and consumer news. At 8:30 PM, a new Family Tools (0.9/3) was down 10% to hit a new low for the failed freshman series. At 9:30 PM, How To Live With Your Parents (For The Rest Of Your Life) (1.3/4) slipped 7% to also hit a new low for the new show. ABC ended the night with The Lookout (1.1/3). The new primetime edition from the Nightline team stayed steady in its second week with its May 29 debut. The only thing new on NBC on Wednesday was Dateline (1.1/4). The third most watched show on TV last night with 5.20 million viewers, the news magazine show was down 27% from last week’s show to match a season low.
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