‘MasterChef,’ ‘American Ninja Warrior’ Hit Highs While ‘Under the Dome’ Falls to Low

While CBS drama “Under the Dome” dropped off to a same-night ratings low Monday, it was a good night for reality shows “MasterChef” on Fox and “American Ninja Warrior” on NBC, both of which delivered their best scores of the summer.

According to “Live plus same-day” estimates from Nielsen, “MasterChef” was Monday’s top-rated program in adults 18-49 with a 2.1 rating/7 share while drawing 5.8 million total viewers. It was up two tenths from last week and edged out its July 7 episode (2.0), which had been the show’s top demo score of the summer.

“MasterChef” was followed by the season premiere of “Hotel Hell” (1.5/5 in 18-49, 4.0 million viewers overall), which did reasonably well but was down from the 1.9 it opened to in its most recent season, in 2012. Though it placed third in its time period in most categories, it fared well enough to help keep Fox on top for the night in adults 18-49 — the net’s ninth straight Monday triumph in the demo.

Elsewhere, NBC opened with a repeat “Last Comic Standing” (0.8/3 in 18-49, 3.2 million viewers overall), followed by “American Ninja Warrior” (1.9/6 in 18-49, 5.8 million viewers overall), which won its two-hour timeslot in 18-49 as well as total viewers. It was up two tenths week to week, matching the show’s highest 18-49 score of the season (and it looks like to round up to a 2.0 in the nationals.)

Next week, the season premiere of “Running Wild With Bear Grylls” serves as the lead-in for “Ninja Warrior.”

At CBS, repeats of “2 Broke Girls” (1.0/4 in 18-49, 4.3 million viewers overall), “Mom” (0.9/3 in 18-49, 3.9 million viewers overall), “Mike & Molly” (1.0/3 in 18-49, 4.7 million viewers overall) and “Two and a Half Men” (1.0/3 in 18-49, 4.5 million viewers overall) were followed by “Under the Dome” (1.5/5 in 18-49, 6.7 million viewers overall), which declined about 20% week to week (from 1.9) for the week’s lowest score over its 17 episodes to date.

“Under the Dome” figures to look better relative to the competition when DVR numbers come in. Its season premiere gained 1.3 ratings points in 18-49 and 4.6 million total viewers when going from same-night to a full week’s worth of DVR playback.

ABC’s “The Bachelorette” (1.8/6 in 18-49, 6.8 million viewers overall) was up a tick week to week with its “The Men Tell All” episode leading into next week’s finale; it won its two-hour block in 18-49 (tied with Fox) and total viewers, and edged ahead of “Under the Dome” as the most-watched show on Monday night for the first time. At 10 p.m., “Mistresses” (1.0/3 in 18-49, 3.6 million viewers overall) held steady.

The Alphabet won Monday in total viewers.

CW’s “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” (0.6/2 in 18-49, 1.8 million viewers overall) was up a tenth to match its summer high. An encore fared just as well at 8:30 p.m. (0.6/2 in 18-49, 1.7 million viewers overall), and was followed by the second week for low-rated comedies “Seed” (0.2/1 in 18-49, 0.5 million viewers overall) and “Backpackers” (0.2/0 in 18-49, 0.4 million viewers overall).

Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: Fox, 1.8/6; NBC, 1.6/5; ABC, 1.5/5; CBS and Univision, 1.2/4; Telemundo, 0.6/2; CW, 0.4/1.

In total viewers: ABC, 5.7 million; CBS, 5.1 million; NBC and Fox, 4.9 million; Univision, 3.0 million; Telemundo, 1.5 million; CW, 1.1 million.

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