'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).