Hell’s Kitchen 4 debuts with series-high ratings, beats Dancing with the Stars in 18-49

The debut of Hell’s Kitchen 4 on Tuesday, the first time the show has aired outside the summer, was watched by 12.6 million people, “a series-high rating,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The paper notes that the series, which followed American Idol, “retained a greater percentage of ‘Idol’ viewers (61%) than drama ‘New Amsterdam’ in March (42%), but less than premieres of ‘Moment of the Truth’ (94%) and last year’s debut of ‘Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader’ (92%).” One can safely assume that 61 percent of Idol‘s audience are the people who tune in to see if Simon Cowell will call someone a stupid donkey.

While Gordon Ramsay and his new crew of incompetent chefs “had roughly 4.5 million fewer viewers than Dancing with the Stars,” according to TV By the Numbers, “it easily won the 18-49 in a beatdown.”

In its ratings story, Variety points out that Hell’s Kitchen may suffer due to Fox’s annoying scheduling. Its “numbers could drop a bit as ‘Idol’ spilled into the 9 o’clock hour.”