The X Factor kicked off its third season Wednesday night and it looks like it may be another rough season for Simon Cowell and company. The show took a double-digit stumble from the season two premiere and lost its hour to CBS’ Big Brother. However, Fox still won thanks to MasterChef.
Cowell’s show had a one-hour premiere at 8 p.m. and Big Brother was its only competition, as ABC ran a Shark Week repeat and NBC’s Million Second Quiz has underperformed. According to HitFix, X Factor had 6.17 million viewers and a 2.1 rating in the 18-49 demographic, according to Nielsen Fast National data. This was a 22 percent drop compared to the 8 p.m. hour of last year’s premiere.
The only good news is that the drop from seasons two to three was slightly smaller than the drop from seasons one to two. As The Hollywood Reporter notes, the drop from the season one premiere to season two was 25 percent.
Fox made a bold move by premiering X Factor now, rather than waiting next week, when it launches its other shows. Last year, it premiered the same week as The Voice, which didn’t help. You can check out our recap here.
The MasterChef finale had 6.195 million viewers and a 2.4 18-49 rating, which helped Fox get the best 18-49 average on the night with a 2.2.
CBS’ Big Brother at 8 p.m. had 6.68 million viewers and a 2.2 18-49 rating. The only other major show on last night was NBC’s America’s Got Talent, which drew 9.785 million and a 2.1 18-49 rating at 9 p.m.