There was a lot starting to boil, some spies and Inhumans, a few tunes and a bit of ratings blaze on primetime last night. The cooking reference is of course to the Season 14 premiere of Hell’s Kitchen (1.4/4) on Fox. That’s down 30% among adults 18-49 from the March 13, 2014 Season 12 debut of the Gordon Ramsay-led show, which was a Thursday. Last night’s Hell’s Kitchen return was pretty steady with from the previous season opener on Wednesday September 10 last year with a 6% dip. While preliminary ratings have that as the lowest HK premiere to date, as we have seen before with Ramsay’s shows, that number could be adjusted in the final numbers. Comedies New Girl (1.3/4) and The Mindy Project (1.0/3) were even and slipping 9% respectively from last week.
It wasn’t a season premiere like Hell’s Kitchen but there was a lot of anticipation in fanboy circles over the return of a certain Agent Coulson and gang on ABC last night. With a very distinct reach into the greater Marvel Universe, Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. (1.6/5) was back after a long winter break that saw Agent Carter picking up the superspy slack. With new opposition over on NBC but a lack of drama rivals on CBS last night, the spring return of the show dipped a mere 6% from its last original back on December 19 last year. However, the second midseason return of S.H.I.E.L.D. fell 27% among the demo from its Season 1 return on January 7 last year. The rest of ABC’s night was mainly steady with Fresh Off The Boat (1.7/6) and the unscripted Repeat After Me (1.2/4) down a slight 6% and 8% each from last week. Ending the night for the network, Forever (1.0/3) was even with last week. Fox and ABC were tied for second place for the night among adults 18-49 with a 1.3/4 each.
NBC won the night both among the 18-49 demo and in total viewers with a 3.4/11 rating and 13.274 million watching. Obviously that was due to the The Voice (4.1/12) which was the easily the highest rated show of the night and the most watched with an audience of 15.34 million – which made last night the second most watched Tuesday of the Mark Burnett produced show ever in preliminary numbers. Week-to-week, The Voice was steady with a 5% lift.
The real jump for NBC was Chicago Fire (2.2/7). Now after The Voice, the Dick Wolf produced show saw a 57% surge among the key demo from its last original of February 17 when it ended a night of comedies like the now departed Parks & Recreation. With a total viewership of 9.1 million, last night’ CF was also the most episode since the show’s September 23 season premiere, which got 9.157 million.
The CW and CBS were all encores on Tuesday night.
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