'South Park' ratings were up over last season as the skein launched its 12th year.
Two of cable's most popular skeins -- Comedy Central's "South Park" and Bravo's "Top Chef" -- returned to action Wednesday night with big Nielsens.
"Top Chef" continues to pick up ratings steam and is the latest Bravo reality series to grow from season to season. "South Park" shows no signs of slowing down in its 12th season, helping launch "Lewis Black's Root of All Evil" to nifty numbers of its own.
According to Nielsen, "Top Chef" (1.1/3 in 18-49, 2.26 million viewers overall) opened its fourth season as the top-rated food show on cable in all key demos. It was up compared to its most recent opener by 5% in 18-49 viewers and by 11% in total viewers.
"Chef's" strongest demo was women 18-34, where it commanded 5% of the viewing audience to lead cable in the 10 o'clock hour.
Over at Comedy Central, the 10 p.m. preem of "South Park" (1.8/5 in 18-49, 3.07 million viewers overall) was up nicely over its 11th-season bow, standing as cable's top show of the night in men 18-34 (3.4/11) and total viewers.
That led in to "Lewis Black's Root of All Evil" (1.3/4 in 18-49, 2.31m), which became the net's top-rated debut since the launch of "Chappelle's Show" in 2003. Like "South Park," it was the No. 1 show in all of television for its timeslot among men 18-34 (2.4/8).
For the night, Comedy Central stood as the No. 1 cabler in men 18-24 and 18-34. The influx of young men helped lift "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" to its most-watched telecast (2.25 million) since October.
Fox ruled primetime's opening two hours with "Moment of Truth" (4.2/12 in 18-49, 10.58m) and "American Idol" (10.3/26, 27.13m), as the unscripted series switched timeslots this week. NBC closed out the night on top with some of the season's best scores for "Law & Order" (3.3/9, 11.85m).
Contact Rick Kissell at
rick.kissell@variety.com