Reality ruled on TV on Monday night but the results were very different across the networks. It was spelling bee night on ABC's Bachelor Pad (1.3/4) last night and the word there was f-l-a-t.  With the contestants now competing as couples, the show was the same as last week – which was a good week for Bachelor Pad…

UPDATE, 2:45 PM: Missy Franklin helped last night’s Olympics become the most-watched in 36 years with 31.6 million viewers. NBC’s Monday primetime broadcast of the London Olympicswas the most-watched first Monday non-U.S. Summer Games since the Montreal 1976. That’s still behind Montreal’s 37.7 million but ahead of…

Monday was a night of beginnings and endings. With hot tubs and cold intrigue for a $250,000 prize, ABC had the two-hour Season 3 premiere of Bachelor Pad (1.4/4) at 8 PM. That was down 36% from the 2011 Season 2 premiere on August 8 and a series low. ABC followed at 10 PM with a new episode of the legally challenged T…

NFL games last night had opposite ratings effects on Fox and ABC in the fast nationals. Airing against Monday Night Football, Fox’s Hell’s Kitchen (2.4/6) at 9 PM was down 11% from last Monday, which was Labor Day. Still, Gordon Ramsay’s cooking competition was the top-rated program of the night among adults 18-49. It…

Univision dominated its English-language counterparts last night, winning Monday night in adults 18-49 (2.3/6), adults 18-34 (2.5/7) and total viewers (5.7 million) with the three-hour finale of Pequeños Gigantes. Fox (2.0/5, 4.5 million) was second in the demo, paced by a new Hell’s Kitchen (2.6/6, 5.8 million) at 9…

With an original Hell’s Kitchen (2.9/7) following a rerun of the cooking reality show (1.7/5), Fox easily topped Monday night in adults 18-49 (2.3/6, 5 million total viewers). The new Hell’s Kitchen was up 7% from last week to tie the series’ summer high. Also up was ABC’s Bachelor Pad (2.0/6, up 5%), which probably…

Fox (2.6/7 in adults 18-49, 6.2 million viewers) once again topped Monday night with a Gordon Ramsay lineup. After MasterChef wrapped its season last week, the network aired back-to-back originals of Hell’s Kitchen (2.4/7 at 8 PM and 2.7/7 at 9 PM) last night. The 8 PM episode was down a tenth from the fast national…

With CBS and NBC in all repeats, it is a two-way race on Monday between Fox and ABC these days. Fox posted another dominating performance from Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen (2.8/8 in 18-49, even with last week, 6.8 million total viewers, up 3%) and MasterChef (2.4/6, up 4%, 6 million, up 9%). Fox (2.6/7, 6.4 million)…

TV specials, especially telecasts of award shows and live events, often run for three hours in primetime, but airing a three-hour episode of a regular show is rather unusual. That is what ABC did last night with the season premiere Bachelor Pad (2.2/6, 6.9 million), which aired from 8-11 PM. The Bachelor offshoot was…

The season premieres of CW’s Monday dramas 90210 (2.0 million viewers, 1.2/4 in 18-34) and Gossip Girl (1.9 million, 1.3/4 in 18-34) were down double-digits from last year. It total viewers, 90210, which aired Tuesdays at 8PM last season, was off 19%, while the heavily hyped Paris opener of Gossip Girl was down 27%…

ABC and CBS finished tied for first place in the adults 18-49 demographic last night with a 1.7 rating/5 share. (CBS had the advantage in total viewers, 6.1 million vs. 4.8 million). CBS’ flagship comedies The Big Bang Theory (2.2/6 among adults 18-49, 7.6 million viewers overall) and Two and a Half Men (2.1/5, 7.9…

It looks like the summer TV season will wrap the way it started, with CBS’s all-rerun Monday lineup easily topping the night. The network’s comedies The Big Bang Theory (2.8 rating/7 share among adults 18-49, 8.8 million viewers overall) and Two and a Half Men (2.6/7, 9.0 million) were the top programs of the night…