It appears that Fox and Gordon Ramsay have whipped up another hit. On Sunday, “Next Level Chef” had the highest-rated series premiere of the season.
Of course, the fact that “Next Level Chef” had the late-afternoon NFL game as its East-Coast lead-in helped out a great deal. Still, it was Fox’s highest-rated series debut in a year, since the Jan. 3, 2021 premiere of “Call Me Kat.”
Due to the nature of live sports, readers should consider the below Nielsen numbers for NBC and Fox subject to significant adjustment. Also of note, on Sunday night, CBS premiered the new season of “S.W.A.T.”
NBC was first in ratings with a 3.3 rating in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic and in total viewers with an average of 12.8 million, according to preliminary numbers. Those were the averages of pre-game series “Football Night in America” and the primetime pigskin (Minnesota Vikings at Green Bay Packers) itself.
Fox was second in ratings with a 2.0 and in total viewers with 7.3 million. Following an NFL overrun and postgame show “The OT,” Gordon Ramsay’s “Next Level Chef” bowed to a 1.2 rating and 4 million total viewers. “The Simpsons” at 9 had a 0.6 rating and 1.9 million total viewers. “The Great North” at 9:30 got a 0.4 rating and 1.3 million total viewers.
CBS was third in ratings with a 0.5 and in total viewers with 5.5 million. Following a rerun, “The Equalizer” at 8 p.m. put up a 0.5 rating and 6.3 million total viewers. At 9, “NCIS: Los Angeles” received a 0.4 rating and 5 million total viewers. The “S.W.A.T.” premiere at 10 had a 0.4 rating and 3.7 million total viewers.
ABC was fourth in ratings with a 0.4 and in total viewers with 3.3 million. “America’s Home Videos” at 7 got a 0.5 rating and 4.3 million total viewers. At 8, “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune” had a 0.4 rating and 3.9 million total viewers. “Supermarket Sweep” at 9 received a 0.4 rating and 2.3 million total viewers. At 10, “The Rookie” closed out primetime with a 0.3 rating and 2.7 million total viewers.
The CW was fifth in ratings with a 0.1 and in total viewers with 381,000, airing all reruns.
We do not have early Nielsen numbers for Spanish-language broadcast networks Univision and Telemundo.