Spotted Ratings, Monday 8/27/12: Hellwether Moment

WHAT MATTERS:

• The second half of the summer has belonged to Gordon Ramsay, and this was one of his best nights yet. Hell's Kitchen hit an outright season high and Hotel Hell had another big evening, now a whooping half point ahead of its premiere just two weeks ago. Book Ramsay for all three shows next summer, Fox.

• On the other hand, it remains negative on NBC, with Stars Earn Stripes down yet another two tenths in its penultimate airing and Grimm also inching down again. 

• The Big Bang Theory continues to prove CBS can throw it anywhere and it can make good things happen. It vaulted all the surrounding comedies to well above average rerun numbers. It's too bad it can't air both on Monday and Thursday in originals!

• It's becoming harder to ignore VH1's ascendant Love and Hip Hop: Atlanta (2.4). Not that I was intentionally ignoring it, it's just kinda off my radar as a viewer! But it's now crushing usual Monday cable tentpoles like WWE Raw (1.8 in its best hour) and Pawn Stars (1.7). It wraps up with the second half of the reunion next week. It's also really helped out its lead-out Single Ladies (1.6), which was among the cable elite on finale night. ABC Family's The Secret Life of the American Teenager (0.8) wrapped up a pretty rough season with some major finale growth of its own.

FULL TABLE:

	Viewers	A18-49	Last	LeLa	Avg	Rank
Bachelor Pad	4.38	1.3	+0%	n/a	+5%	2/6
Castle (SR)	3.14	0.6
How I Met Your Mother (SR)	4.87	1.5
The Big Bang Theory (SR)	6.50	2.0
2 Broke Girls (SR)	6.63	2.1
Mike and Molly (SR)	5.97	1.6
Hawaii Five-0 (SR)	5.06	1.1
America's Got Talent (R)	4.17	0.9
Stars Earn Stripes	3.09	1.0	-17%	-18%	-35%	3/3
Grimm	4.67	1.6	-6%	-17%	-14%	3/3
Hotel Hell	5.90	2.4	+20%	n/a	+20%	1/4
Hell's Kitchen Mon	6.87	2.9	+12%	+20%	+14%	1/11
The LA Complex (S)	0.65	0.3	+0%	n/a	+38%	1/7
America's Next Top Model Fall 2012 (R)	0.82	0.3

KEY (click to expand)

Viewers - The total number of viewers (age 2+, in millions) that watched the program.
A18-49 - Adults 18-49 rating. Percentage of US TV-owning adults 18-49 watching the program.
Last - A18-49 percent difference from previous episode.
LeLa - A18-49 percent difference between the show's lead-in and its lead-in for the previous episode.
Avg - A18-49 percent difference from the show's average demo for previous original episodes this season.
Rank - The A18-49 rating's rank among the show's episodes that have aired so far this season.

(R) - Repeat.
(SR) - Summer repeat. (for shows not currently in season)

Much more detail on these numbers at the New Daily Spotted Ratings page.

More Spotted Ratings in the Index.