The War of 18-49, MasterChef

MASTERCHEF (FOX)

Scheduling history: Though fellow Gordon Ramsay staple Hell's Kitchen and spin-off MasterChef Junior have each pulled heavy regular season duty, MasterChef proper has remained a summer-only fixture. But Fox has moved it around quite a bit. It launched after Hell's on Tuesday in season one, then moved to two-hour episodes on Wednesday. Seasons two and three regularly aired on both Monday and Tuesday, season four was back to the two-hour Wednesday setup, season five made yet another move to Monday, and season six returned to Wednesday.

See (who saw) how it all began: MasterChef opened with a solid 5.75 million viewers and a 2.7 demo rating on July 27, 2010, almost fully retaining its lead-in from Hell's Kitchen (6.40m/2.9). MasterChef dropped a tick to 2.6 for weeks two and three as Hell's was perking up for its last two episodes (3.2 and 3.3). Then Hell's went away and MasterChef was left to fend for itself on Wednesday, where it mostly pulled low 2's.

The best of times: MasterChef's first four seasons have had remarkably consistent raw averages, which is always a good thing in an era of 10% yearly collective decline. And the road to those averages when compared with Hell's Kitchen paints an even more promising tale. After struggling on its own in early season two, it perked up when Hell's returned in the mid-summer, culminating in a series high 2.9 for the second half of its finale on 8/16/11. By season three, it was basically matching Hell's when the two were paired. In season four, it was on its own night and actually got better ratings than the original Ramsay series.

The worst of times: Though MasterChef was a highly legitimate anchor series in 2013, it may not have been quite ready for that role when it first led off in 2010 and 2011. Most of the series' lowest historical-adjusted numbers came in its lead-off episodes in late season one and early season two. Airing on Friday in 2015-16, the Junior edition dropped as low as a 0.7 several times in spring 2018 and 2019, while the mothership hit several 0.7's in 2019 as well.

Then vs. now: As American Idol's collapse began, MasterChef was one of the only brands on Fox moving in the right direction. Until season five, each season grew year-to-year in Plus, and the spin-off MasterChef Junior has been just as strong as the mothership in recent regular seasons. Even in season six, taking its biggest decline yet, MasterChef was the best thing Fox had going for it on the summer schedule, so there's no reason to believe the end is in sight. Fox aired another Junior edition to great-for-Friday numbers in fall 2015.

MasterChef (2010-21)

Adults 18-49 info by season:

Seas	Year	Slot	Avg	y2y	Lo	Hi	Results	Grade
1	Summer 2010	Wednesday 8:00	2.27		2.0	2.7	detail
2	Summer 2011	Mon 8:00, Mon 9:00	2.20	-3%	1.8	2.4	detail
		2	Summer 2011	Tue 8:00, Tue 9:00	2.23				1.8	2.9	detail
3	Summer 2012	Monday 9:00	2.47	+12%	2.2	2.7	detail
		3	Summer 2012	Tuesday 9:00	2.36	+6%			2.0	2.8	detail
4	Summer 2013	Wednesday 9:00	2.27	-8%	2.0	2.6	detail
5	Summer 2014	Monday 8:00	1.88	-17%	1.5	2.1	detail	C
6	Summer 2015	Wednesday 8:00	1.46	-23%	1.2	1.7	detail	C-
7	Summer 2016	Wed 8:00, Wed 9:00	1.25	-14%	1.0	1.5	detail	C+
8	Summer 2017		Wed 8:00, Wed 9:00	1.10	-13%	0.9	1.4	detail	B
9	Summer 2018		Wed 8:00, Wed 9:00	0.99	-9%	0.9	1.2	detail	B
10	Summer 2019	Wed 8:00, Thu 8:00	0.77	-23%	0.7	0.9	detail	C
11	Summer 2021	Wednesday 8:00	0.58		0.5	0.7	detail
12	Summer 2022		Wednesday 8:00	0.41	-29%	0.3	0.5		detail
13	Summer 2023		Wednesday 8:00	0.37	-10%	0.3	0.4		detail

Historical-adjusted ratings by season:

Seas	Year	A18-49+	Label	Now23	y2y	Lo	Hi	Premiere	Finale
1	Summer 2010	81	solid(sum)	0.34		71	96	96	71
2	Summer 2011	87	solid(sum)	0.37	+7%	71	94	71	94
		2	Summer 2011	88	solid(sum)	0.37		71	114	75	114
3	Summer 2012	104	hit(sum)	0.45	+21%	93	114	97	110
		3	Summer 2012	100	hit(sum)	0.43	+14%	85	119	93	114
4	Summer 2013	108	big hit(sum)	0.46	+3%	95	123	100	114
5	Summer 2014	100	hit(sum)	0.43	-7%	80	111	80	106
6	Summer 2015	87	solid(sum)	0.37	-13%	71	101	71	89
7	Summer 2016	86	solid(sum)	0.37	-1%	69	103	82	103
8	Summer 2017	89	solid(sum)	0.38	+4%	73	114	90	98
9	Summer 2018	91	hit(sum)	0.39	+2%	79	107	89	103
10	Summer 2019	81	solid(sum)	0.34	-11%	70	96	89	86
11	Summer 2021	89	solid(sum)	0.38		76	104	93	81
12	Summer 2022	81	solid(sum)	0.34	-10%	67	94	67	90
13	Summer 2023	87	solid(sum)	0.37	+8%	75	103	77	103

MasterChef Junior

Adults 18-49 info by season:

Seas	Year	Slot	Avg	y2y	Lo	Hi	Results	Grade
1	Fall 2013	Friday 8:00	1.40		1.3	1.6	detail
2	Fall 2014	Tuesday 8:00	1.66	+18%	1.5	1.8	detail
3	Winter 2015		Tuesday 8:00	1.68		1.4	1.8		detail
4	2015-16	Friday 8:00	1.23	-26%	0.9	1.5	detail	B+
5	Spring 2017	Thursday 8:00	1.04	-16%	0.9	1.3	detail	B
6	Spring 2018	Friday 8:00	0.79	-24%	0.7	0.9	detail	B-
7	Spring 2019	Tuesday 8:00	0.74	-7%	0.7	0.8	detail	B-
8	Spring 2022	Thursday 8:00	0.37		0.3	0.4	detail	C+
9	Spring 2024	Monday 8:00	0.26		0.2	0.3	detail	B-

Historical-adjusted ratings by season:

Seas	Year	A18-49+	Label	Now24	y2y	Lo	Hi	Premiere	Finale
1	Fall 2013	74	solid(Fri)	0.28		69	85	85	80
2	Fall 2014	99	marginal	0.37	+33%	89	107	107	101
3	Winter 2015	100	solid	0.38		83	107	107	95
4	2015-16	85	hit(Fri)	0.32	-14%	62	103	89	89
5	Spring 2017	85	marginal	0.32	+0%	73	106	106	82
6	Spring 2018	72	solid(Fri)	0.27	-15%	61	85	85	79
7	Spring 2019	78	marginal	0.30	+8%	73	84	83	83
8	Spring 2022	73	marginal	0.28		57	80	76	78
9	Spring 2024	69	flop	0.26		61	76	74	63

The War of 18-49 chronicles the ratings history of veteran primetime series. For more, see the Index.