TV Ratings: ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ Return Tops Tuesday, ‘The Taste’ Dips in Finale

Hell's Kitchen returned to Fox with a two-hour premiere on Tuesday night, topping the night in adults 18-49 with a 2.2 rating and placing second in total viewers with an average 5.4 million. Viewership was on par with last summer's Monday opener, though the demo was off by two tenths of a point.

On CBS, encores of NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles led into an even outing for Golden Boy (1.6 adults), now settling into its Tuesday slot after one Friday outing. The network averaged a 1.8 rating among adults 18-49 and 11.2 million viewers.

Celebrity Wife Swap (1.6 adults) saw a one tenth of a point boost from last week, while the finale of The Taste (1.1 adults) dropped a tenth to a series low. Body of Proof (1.2 adults) was also down a tenth of a point, giving ABC an average 1.3 rating with adults 18-49 and 4.9 million viewers for the night.

NBC also had a slew of encores -- exceptions being a new Betty White's Off Their Rockers (1.0 adults), down a tenth of a point from last week, and a slightly boosted Smash (0.9 adults), which was up by a tenth. The network averaged a 0.9 adults rating and 3 million viewers.

Encores continued on the CW, with Hart of Dixie and Beauty and the Beast repeats averaging a 0.2 rating with 18-49-ers and 777,000 viewers.

Univision averaged a 1.4 rating in the key demo and 3.5 million viewers.

Michael O'Connell