Friday, August 17, 2012

'Grimm' ratings return lower despite Olympics push - Entertainment Weekly

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Gordon Ramsay beat up a slew of patriotic celebrities Monday night, while the return of Grimm couldn’t quite give NBC a happy ending.

Despite NBC’s promotions for Stars Earn Stripes during the Summer Olympics, and some timely controversy about the non-casting of Jack Osbourne, the new reality show was topped by Hotel Hell, Fox’s latest Ramsay shouter. At 8 p.m., the one-hour Hotel debut delivered 5.1 million viewers and a 1.9 rating among adults 18-49 at 8 p.m., edging out the two-hour series premiere of Stars Earn Stripes in the adult demo (5.1 million viewers, 1.7).

Fox touts Hotel Hell as the summer’s highest rated series debut, but that says more about this summer’s weak new shows (like ABC’s Glass House) then it does about the success of Hotel Hell. Still, the Fox show bested not only Stars but also ABC’s Bachelor Pad (4.1 million, 1.2) and Glass House (2.1 million, 0.7). All paled compared to the return of Hell’s Kitchen (6.5 million, 2.7) after an Olympics hiatus, returning to its second-highest rating of the summer.

At 10 p.m., the second season premiere of Grimm, which is getting a run on Mondays before moving to Fridays, returned slightly weaker than its series debut last year. Grimm (5.7 million, 2.0) improved upon its Stars lead in and this was the second-biggest rating ever for the show.

Yet Grimm was down 5 percent from the fairy tale procedural’s series opener last October. Anything less than a ratings climb is arguably disappointing considering the drama is being given a shot on Mondays â€" debuting the day after the Closing Ceremony â€" and the show received promotion during NBC’s “Most Watched TV Event in U.S. History.”

NBC’s Olympics promotions efforts drove sampling to new shows during the Olympics itself. On Sunday, the premiere of Animal Practice was seen by 12.8 million viewers, and last week a preview of Go On had 16.1 million viewers.

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