Latest in Take The Money & Run

What do American Idol, Dancing With the Stars, Survivor, Who Wants To Be a Millionaire, Hell’s Kitchen, Big Brother, So You Think You Can Dance, America’s Got Talent and Wipeout have in common? They are broadcast TV’s biggest reality franchises of the past decade. And they all launched in the summer. Summer used to be…

With Fox switching to repeats on Tuesday night following last week’s season finale of MasterChef, most of the original competition posted ratings gains. NBC’s America’s Got Talent (3.1/8 in 18-49, 11.6 million viewers) was up 11% from last Tuesday and was once again the night’s highest-rated program. Its lead-in, It’s…

Fox’s MasterChef ended its season last night with a two-hour finale, averaging a 2.6/8 among 18-49. That was up 30% from last year’s two-hour finale on Sept. 15. The 8 PM episode drew a 2.4/8 and 5.9 million viewers, while the actual finale at 9 PM rose to 2.8/8 and 7.3 million viewers, up 40% from last year’s final…

Fox (2.6/8 among adults 18-49, 6.2 million viewers) won Tuesday in 18-49 with Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen (2.7/9, 6.3 million) and MasterChef (2.5/7, 6.1 million), both flat vs. last week in the demo, while MasterChef drew its largest audience ever. The other originals last night were all down vs. last Tuesday: ABC…