‘Fringe’ returns lower; ‘Gifted Man’ modest in ratings

“Save Peter”? How about “Save Fringe”? Fox’s fourth season premiere of the beloved drama dropped in the ratings from its previous Friday debut, yet still gave Fox an improved lineup compared to recent years.

Fringe returned to 3.5 million viewers and a 1.5 adults 18-49 ratings, coming in third place in the hour and down 21 percent from when it first shifted to Fridays back in January.

Still, Fringe performed much better than the short-lived Good Guys in the slot from last fall and edged out the series premiere of CBS’ new metaphysical medical drama A Gifted Man (9.3 million, 1.4), which tied the debut of Medium in the time period from last year. Fringe‘s lead-in Kitchen Nightmares (3.8 million, 1.6) was down 16 percent. All told, given Fox’s rough history in these hours, this is the highest-rated premiere week Friday for the network in six years.

After Gifted Man, CBS had the season premiere of CSI: NY (10.7 million, 1.8), slipping 10 percent, and the return of Blue Bloods (11.8 million, 2.0) was down 9 percent. Blue Bloods tied NBC’s Dateline as Friday’s highest-rated show and CBS won the evening.

On The CW, Nikita (1.9 million, 0.6) and Supernatural (2 million, 0.8) were hurting. Being shifted to Fridays caused Nikita to debut with less than half the rating of its Thursday series premiere last year, and that’s also less than half the number that Smallville delivered in this slot. Lacking its super-powered lead-in, Supernatural was down 38 percent from its premiere here last year.

PREMIERE WEEK RATINGS:
MONDAY: ‘Two and a Half Men’ ratings huge! Ashton Kutcher debut delivers series high
TUESDAY: Zooey Deschanel’s ‘New Girl’ opens big; ‘Glee’ dips
WEDNESDAY: ‘X Factor’ opens solid, but ‘Modern Family’ steals the show
– THURSDAY: ‘Charlie’s Angels’ modest, ‘X Factor’ steady