• by Wayne Friedman , July 22, 2009

Summer TV is heating up again -- thanks to the return of the big summer show, Fox's "Hell's Kitchen."

The venerable reality cooking-and-yelling show grabbed a Nielsen preliminary 3.0 rating/9 share among 18-49 viewers for its two-hour premiere. Although it was down from recent editions -- all thanks to the lift from running behind "American Idol" -- it helped Fox beat all comers on Tuesday night with an average 3.0/9 among 18-49 viewers, as well as getting a leading 2.5/9 among 18-34 viewers.

But the biggest summer show continues to be NBC's "America's Got Talent," which posted a 3.4/10 among 18-49 viewers, pulling in an impressive 13.6 million viewers -- over 4 million more than its nearest competitor, a CBS "NCIS" repeat, that took in 9.4 million viewers. This episode of "Talent" became the most-viewed TV show since the "Idol" finale in May.

While "Talent" scored well at 9 p.m., NBC decided to save some money on the night by running reruns at 8 p.m. with a "Talent" repeat and a repeat of "Law & Order: SVU" at 10 p.m. Those shows pulled in 2.1/7 and a 2.0/6, respectively, among 18-49 viewers. NBC averaged a 2.5/8 for the night.

Next came CBS, which also offered its only fresh programming of the night at 9 p.m.: "Big Brother"pulled in a 2.0/6. It was well behind "Kitchen" and "Talent." "Brother" results were a bit lower than the previous week.

ABC couldn't keep pace with these other heavyweight summer reality shows for the night. Its 8 p.m. "Superstars" fell again to a 1.0/3 from a 1.2/4 the week before. (Although ABC's other big competition effort -- "Wipeout" -- is doing well enough, the network has already decided to give it the go-ahead for its third season.)

As opposed to other networks, ABC ran a full schedule of fresh programming on Tuesday night: "The Superstars", "Better Off Ted", and "Primetime: Family Secrets." "Secrets" was ABC's best effort -- a 1.5/5 for the series finale. ABC ended the night with a 1.1/3 among 18-49 viewers, behind Univision at a 1.4/4.

The CW was in repeats with "90210," and "Hitched or Ditched" landed at a 0.4/1.