Summer programming saw its official start on Thursday night -- and Fox regained a demo edge with the time period premiere of Hell's Kitchen. The series rose three tenths of a point from last week's Monday outing, averaging a 2.1 rating with adults 18-49. The premiere of layoff reality show Does Someone Have to Go? (1.3 adults) lost a sizable portion of its lead-in, but still managed to top the 9 p.m. hour. Fox averaged a 1.7 rating with adults 18-49 and 4.3 million viewers.
And while the rest of the Big Four had new entries filling holes in the schedule, CBS' encore block placed a strong second in the demo (1.4 adults) and topped in total viewers with 6.6 million. Unsurprisingly, a repeat of The Big Bang Theory (2.2 adults) topped all broadcasts of the night.
Wipeout (1.2 adults) rebounded some from last week's series low on ABC, moving up two tenths of a point. The official time slot premiere of Motive (1.2 adults) lost a tenth of a point from Monday's sampling. At 10 p.m., the season premiere of Rookie Blue (1.2 adults) came in two tenths of a point shy of last summer's opener. ABC averaged a steady 1.2 rating with adults 18-49 throughout the night and 5.3 million viewers.
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There likely won't be any saving Save Me. The delayed comedy, picked up over a year ago, brought in a 0.7 rating with adults 18-49 in back-to-back premiere episodes. After comedy encores, Hannibal (1.0 adults) dropped a tenth of a point at 10 p.m. NBC averaged a 0.8 rating with adults 18-49 and 2.6 million viewers.
Encores fetched a 0.2 rating with adults 18-49 and 799,000 viewers on the CW.
And Univision averaged a 1.3 rating in the key demo and 3.4 million viewers.
