Fox premiered the third season of singing competition show The X Factor to a 2.1 rating with adults 18-49 on Wednesday, a drop of 36% from last year's premiere (which was two hours), according to Nielsen overnight numbers. The show was down 22% from last year's 8-9 p.m. hour.
The one-hour premiere, which featured the debut of new judges Kelly Rowland and Paulina Rubio was topped head-to-head by CBS' Big Brother (2.2) and unlike last year, did not go against NBC's The Voice. X Factor was also down 17% year-over-year in total viewers with 6.2 million. The season finale of MasterChef at 9 p.m. also dipped 8% from last year to a 2.4.
Fox was still able to win the night with an overall 2.2 rating/7 share.
Big Brother, which was down a tenth from last week, helped CBS take second with a 1.5/4.
NBC's Million Second Quiz dipped another 20% in its third night to a 1.2. America's Got Talent was down 9% to a 2.1, while the finale of Camp was even with last week's 0.9.
ABC and The CW aired repeats.
