Exclusive: Fox is starting the year strong, with a well-performing Thursday night lineup thanks to some new and returning comedies (and Gordon Ramsay).
The celebrity chef kicked things off at 8pm with a comeback Hell's Kitchen Season 23, which delivered the most-watched telecast of the season with 1.8 million viewers, according to Nielsen Live+ same-day data. This means an increase of about 200,000 viewers from the previous episode, which was the winter finale in December.
This was followed by the third season premiere Animal controlwhich was up 8% from the Season 2 finale to draw 1.3 million viewers in the 9 p.m. The debut of Fox's newest comedy Go Dutch It maintained nearly 100% of its lead in the 9:30 p.m. slot, a big win for the network.
The comedy-series duo actually improved in the network's fall 9pm-10pm slot on average by 30%. It will be interesting to see how this continues through the winter and spring. It would also be useful to monitor it Go DutchPerformance all season long.
Fox says Animal control Overall, Season 2 saw a 58% increase in viewers after seven days of digital viewing with Hulu doing some of the heavy lifting. The same is expected to be true for Go Dutchalthough that will depend on how well it resonates with audiences in the long term.
Overall, Fox won the night in adults 18-49, adults 25-54 and adults 18-34, a very strong showing for the network in the first week of the year.
Averaging a total of 1.5 million viewers overnight, Fox had its best Thursday with entertainment programming in more than five months, excluding the post-NFL period, of course.
