The Question, Tuesday 3/12/13: Can Fox Raise Some Tuesday Hell?

Following a two-year return to steady summer scheduling, Hell's Kitchen is back into utility player mode as Fox looks to Gordon Ramsay to improve the struggling Tuesday lineup. This show has always held up pretty decently in the regular season, but it'll be a challenge for this show to maintain its strong-for-summer numbers against The Voice and NCIS. The good news is that neither of those are in originals against tonight's two-hour premiere. Can Fox raise some Tuesday Hell? That's The Question for Tuesday, March 12, 2013.

Hell's Kitchen Last Summer

2.4 (premiere, 6/4/12) 2.5 (finale, 9/10/12) 2.58 (Monday average) 2.31 (Tuesday average)

My prediction for this season was a 2.2 demo average, and most Hell's seasons historically (like most The Bachelor seasons) grow over the course of the season and end up averaging above what the premiere got. This season may be different, because there's so little competition tonight and much more after The Voice returns in two weeks. So I could see this season going somewhat like 2012 The Bachelor, which basically held the same rating after The Voice came back, the time when it would usually be growing.

Over/Under: 2.25.

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