'Kitchen Nightmares' no disaster for Fox

By Paul J. Gough

NEW YORK -- Fox's "Kitchen Nightmares" was the night's top program in adults 18-49, outpacing CBS' "Big Brother," NBC's "America's Got Talent" and Fox's new game show "Hole in the Wall" and led the network to a win for the night in the demo.

"Kitchen Nightmares" averaged 6.1 million viewers and a 2.9 rating/8 share in adults 18-49, according to preliminary estimates released Friday by Nielsen Media Research. That was enough for Fox to beat CBS by two-tenths of a rating point in the demo, even with CBS having "Big Brother" (7.9 million, 2.7/8). Both "Kitchen Nightmares" and "Big Brother" were up from last week's telecasts. But "Big Brother" is still down 18% from last year's comparable performance.

NBC's "America's Got Talent" (9.6 million, 2.3/8) tied its lowest original broadcast this season, but it was still the night's most-watched program, and came close to "Kitchen Nightmares" in the demo. "Hole in the Wall" (5.4 million, 2.3/7) came in below last year's "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?" in the same slot.

A repeat "CSI" (9 million, 2.2/6) was 9 p.m.'s winner in viewership while CBS' "Flashpoint" (8.5 million, 2.2/6) was down 12% in the demo compared with a repeat of "Without a Trace" this time last year in the same time slot.

ABC and the CW offered drama repeats, and everything on NBC after 8:30 p.m. were also repeats.

For Thursday night's broadcast primetime, Fox (5.7 million, 2.6/8) won in adults 18-49 against ABC (4.9 million, 1.5/4); CBS (8.5 million, 2.4/7); NBC (5 million, 1.8/5); and The CW (1.9 million, 0.7/2).

Comments

[Ruth Kleiman]

I will like to find out how could we participate in the kitchen nighmare program. We are a non-profit organization that because of cutting grants from the government, we opt to enter into the restaurant business, we have a wonderful location, but the decoration and the restaurant itself is of poor taste, we want this to work out and be a source of revenue allowing us to continue to deliver free services to our community. Please help us and indicate the process.
Thank you for your attention,
Ruth Kleiman
NCC Hispanic Development
973-268-1236