Ratings Game: Modern Family & The Defenders Win

Phil & Claire Dunphy, Modern Family

I have yet to watch The Defenders today but it looks like it has performed better than expected when it debuted its pilot episode, earning good numbers with 12M viewers. Modern Family benefits from its Emmy win and opened with a series high of 12.6M.

New show Undercovers did okay, but may need to improve. Given the hype around it, its 8.6M should have been way up. Better Than You fared well, too, given that it was hardly even promoted by its network.

Hellcats has been steadily growing. It does belong where it belongs. If only Life Unexpected from yesterday's line up could grow in the same way.

Losers of the night were Cougar Town and the other legal drama up against The Defender, which is The Whole Truth. It joins Lone Star on death watch.

8 p.m.

CBS: "Survivor: Nicaragua" (12.5 million viewers, 7.0/12 households)
NBC: "Undercovers" series premiere (8.6 million, 5.5/9)
ABC: "The Middle" season premiere (8.8 million, 5.2/9)/"Better With You" series premiere (8 million, 4.8/8)
FOX: "Hell's Kitchen" season premiere (5.95 million, 3.4/6)
The CW: "America's Next Top Model" (2.8 million, 1.8/3)

9 p.m.

CBS: "Criminal Minds" season premiere (14.1 million, 8.5/14)
ABC: "Modern Family" season premiere (12.6 million, 7.4/12)/"Cougar Town" season premiere (8.35 million, 5.2/8)
NBC: "Law & Order: SVU" season premiere (9.7 million, 6.2/10)
FOX: "Hell's Kitchen" (7.2 million, 4.0/6)
The CW: "Hellcats" (2.3 million, 1.4/2)

10 p.m.

CBS: "The Defenders" series premiere (12.1 million, 7.6/13)
NBC: "Law & Order: SVU" season premiere (10.4 million, 6.7/12)
ABC: "The Whole Truth" series premiere (4.9 million, 3.3/6)

The figures are from Zap2it.