Friday Ratings: ‘MasterChef Junior,’ ‘Hawaii Five-0’ and ‘Blue Bloods’ Hit Season Highs

The first Friday full of original programming on the broadcast networks produced some season highs at Fox for “MasterChef Junior” and at CBS for “Hawaii Five-0” and “Blue Bloods,” with the Eye on top for the night overall.

According to preliminary national estimates from Nielsen, CBS opened with “Undercover Boss” (1.2/4 in 18-49, 7.0 million viewers overall), which was a bit below its Friday premiere of last year but ahead of the final six episodes of “The Amazing Race” to air in the same 8 p.m. timeslot in the fall. That stronger push seemed to help “Hawaii Five-0” (1.3/5 in 18-49, 9.2 million viewers overall) and “Blue Bloods” (1.4/5 in 18-49, 10.7 million viewers overall), which were both up 0.3 from their most recent originals.

“Hawaii” hit season highs across the board, including its top 18-49 score since last February and its largest overall audience since last March. And “Blue Bloods” delivered its top 18-49 rating since last March.

At Fox, “MasterChef Junior” (1.4/5 in 18-49, 4.5 million viewers overall) tied with “Blue Bloods” as the night’s top program in 18-49, up 0.3 from its prior original in mid-December and setting a season high (a tick above the 1.3 for its premiere). In addition to 18-49, “MasterChef Junior” also led its time period among the Big Four in kids 2-11 (1.1/5), teens 12-17 (0.7/4) and 18-34 (1.0/5).

Fox is giving the “MasterChef” franchise some additional exposure on Mondays the next two weeks. A repeat “MasterChef Junior” will air from 8 to 10 p.m. on Jan. 11, followed Jan. 18 by the two-hour special “MasterChef Celebrity Showdown.”

At ABC, “Last Man Standing” remained strong kicking off the night (1.3/5 in 18-49, 7.3 million viewers overall), matching its season high and placing second in 18-49 and first in both 25-54 (1.9/6) and total viewers. The net saw a little separation at 8:30 p.m. with “Dr. Ken” (1.1/4 in 18-49, 5.5 million viewers overall), which placed third at 8:30 p.m. in most categories. It was followed by more subdued numbers for “Shark Tank” (1.3/5 in 18-49, 5.8 million viewers overall), a franchise that has clearly cooled this season. Capping the night, “20/20” (0.9/3 in 18-49, 4.6 million viewers overall) was low as well.

NBC opened with “Undateable” (0.8/3 in 18-49, 3.1 million viewers overall), which was in line with its most recent demo scores while hitting a season high in total viewers, followed by a repeat of new Monday comedy “Superstore” (0.6/2 in 18-49, 2.3 million viewers overall), which delivered the same demo rating that firstrun episodes of “Truth Be Told” registered the last two times it followed a 0.8 for its lead-in. “Dateline” closed out the night with a strong performance (1.2/4 in 18-49, 5.6 million viewers overall), matching its highest Friday rating since last March.

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