RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ Slips In Return, ‘The 100′ Inches Up

Another summer staple, Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance, returned last night for an 11th season. The two-hour season premiere featuring an appearance by Justin Bieber, drew a 1.6 rating among adults 18-49, down 16% from last season’s season opener, which aired in mid-May when viewing levels were stronger but so was the competition with a slew of finales. In total viewers, the dance competition averaged 5.3 million viewers, a 4% uptick from last year. Despite the year-to-year decline in 18-49, given the dire ratings straits Fox is in, SYTYCD did well. It posted the highest 18-49 fast national on Fox so far this week, edging 24: Live Another Day and quadrupling the number for Tuesday night’s I Wanna Marry “Harry” and delivered a nightly win in 18-49 against mostly repeat competition.

NBC aired a Last Comic Standing repeat (1.1) leading to an Edward Snowden special (there’s probably a subliminal message joke in the pairing of the two). Brian Williams’ interview with Snowden (1.3) didn’t make a ratings splash following the massive promotion of what was the whistle blower’s first U.S. TV chat but it won the 10 PM hour in the demo. ABC aired comedy reruns, with The Goldbergs moving to its new Wednesday night slot. The network double pumped the freshman comedy behind The Middle (1.1), where it will air in the fall, and Modern Family (1.3). It averaged a 1.1 in both slots. At 10 PM, drama import Motive (0.9) held steady with its season premiere last week. CBS aired all drama repeats. At the CW, a new 100 (0.6) doubled its Arrow rerun (0.3) and was up 20% (0.1).

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