Fox’s "So You Think You Can Dance" dominated the first night of the official summer TV season Thursday with ratings that dwarfed its last premiere on Sept. 9, 2009.
The premiere of the dance competition show won every half-hour during its two-hour block from 8-10 p.m., posting an overall 18-49 demo rating of 3.0 and bringing in an average 8.1 million viewers.
Its 18-49 rating was 11 percent higher than its season premiere last September and it was up 20 percent in total viewers.
Fox took a gamble and put this longtime summer show on its regular-season schedule last fall, but the show didn’t stand up to fresh scripted programming on the other broadcast networks.
In fact, last night’s start of the summer show was up 25 percent among adults 18-49 and up 34 percent in total viewers from its fall season numbers.
Entering its seventh season, and back to its summer roots, "SYTYCD" clearly outdid its competition last night, although much of it was repeat fare on the other networks.
ABC’s series finale of "FlashForward" produced only a 1.3 rating in 18-49 and 4.9 million viewers in the 8-9 p.m. time period vs. "SYTYCD." And an ABC special from 8-9 p.m., "Hollywood Salutes Matt Damon," drew only a 0.8 rating in 18-49 and 3.3 million viewers vs. the reality show.
A repeat of CBS drama "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" at 9 p.m. did only a 1.6 rating in 18-49 but drew a credible 8.3 million viewers, just short of "SYTYCD’s" 8.5 million in the time period.
A repeat of CBS’ drama "The Mentalist" won the 10 p.m. hour with a 1.9 rating in 18-49, beating a repeat of ABC’s "Grey’s Anatomy" (0.8 in 18-49) and repeats of NBC sitcoms "The Office" and "Parks & Recreation," which averaged a 1.1 rating in the key demo.
