Nellie Andreeva

Incumbents were strong, while new series Shaq Vs. and especially 10 to Life had soft premieres last night. Fox’s Hell’s Kitchen (3.2 rating/11 share in adults 18-49) at 8 PM was the highest-rated program of the night, up 10% from last week. Fox’s new Gordon Ramsay series MasterChef (2.7/8) at 9 PM was flat with its premiere last week. Also on par with last week was ABC’s Wipeout (2.9/9) at 8 PM. At 9 PM, the season premiere of Shaq Vs. (1.9/6) lost a large chunk of its Wipeout lead-in and finished 3rd in the hour but was still up 12% from last summer’s premiere.

NBC’s Breakthrough with Tony Robbins (0.7/2) at 8 PM is testing how low a show can go before it is pulled. The unscripted program fell 13% from its premiere last week, which was the lowest-rated series debut (tied) this summer. Breakthrough was followed by a two-hour America’s Got Talent (2.8/8), which was up 8% from last week’s season low.

Despite largely favorably reviews, the CW’s Canadian-produced comedy series 18 to Life (0.4/1, 937,000 viewers overall) had a miniscule debut at 9 PM, falling from the Plain Jane repeat at 8 PM

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