Fox's 'X-Factor' opens to 12 million

Primetime's latest singing competition series, Fox's "The X-Factor," bowed to solid but unspectacular numbers Wednesday, a night that saw ABC close strong with series highs for "Modern Family" - the night's No. 1 show in demos - and a good start for drama "Revenge." According to preliminary national estimates from Nielsen, the Simon Cowell-fronted "X-Factor" opened with a two-hour episode that averaged a 4.2 rating/12 share in adults 18-49 and 12.1 million viewers overall - below the 5.1 demo score that NBC's "The Voice" notched with its premiere in late April, and less than one-half the 9.8 that Fox's "American Idol" opened with in mid-January. While very good fall premiere numbers for any other new show, expectations industrywide were that "X-Factor" would come out of the gate quite a bit stronger.It was beaten in the 9 o'clock hour by ABC's hourlong "Modern Family" (6.0/15 in 18-49, 14.3 million viewers overall) and also was only slightly ahead in demos over CBS' potent "Criminal Minds" (4.1/10 in 18-49, 14.1 million viewers overall), which beat "X-Factor" in total viewers. "Modern Family" was up 18% vs. its year-ago premiere, while lead-in "The Middle," whose hourlong premiere featured guest star Ray Romano, also hit series highs (3.0/9 in 18-49, 9.6 million viewers overall).Despite facing "X-Factor" and a stronger "Modern Family," CBS vet "Criminal Minds" was impressively up 2% in 18-49 vs. last year, while "CSI" was a 7% improvement over last year's premiere of "The Defenders" at 10 o'clock. Earlier, "Survivor" (3.1/9 in 18-49, 10.4 million viewers overall) withstood the "X-Factor" bow reasonably well, dipping 9% below last week's season premiere but coming in about 20% below last year's second episode.ABC used the hourlong "Modern Family" to lead into its new 10 p.m. drama "Revenge," which won its hour in 18-49 (3.4/9) while drawing 10.1 million viewers overall. "Revenge" will have to do without a "Modern Family" lead-in next week as "Happy Endings" takes over the 9:30 p.m. slot, but it's already clear that the new soapy drama is an improvement over last year's dud "The Whole Truth," which opened to a mere 1.5 demo score.Transplanted CBS vet "CSI" (3.1/8 in 18-49, 12.6 million viewers overall) led the 10 p.m. hour in total viewers as expected with its first original episode on Wednesday and was neck-and-neck with "Revenge" for the hour's lead among adults 25-54.It was a tough night for NBC, though leadoff comedy "Up All Night," which drew solid numbers with its special preview last Wednesday, showed some life (2.3/7 in 18-49, 6.0 million viewers overall) -up over last year's "Undercovers" and the best performance for a regular show in the timeslot for the net since December. Auds quickly turned elsewhere at 8:30 p.m., however, as "Free Agents" had a meek time-period bow (1.3/4 in 18-49, 3.9 million viewers overall). Things stayed quiet at 9 o'clock for the Peacock with the second-season premiere of "Harry's Law" (1.2/3 in 18-49, 7.3 million viewers overall), whose low numbers made life difficult for "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (2.3/6 in 18-49, 7.6 million viewers overall), which ran a distant third at 10 o'clock and was down sharply from last year. And the CW barely registered with "Hater" (0.4/1 in 18-49, 1.1 million viewers overall) and the once-vital "America's Next Top Model" (0.7/2 in 18-49, 1.6 million viewers overall). Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: Fox, 4.2/12; ABC, 4.1/11; CBS, 3.5/9; NBC, 1.8/5; Univision, 1.7/4; CW, 0.6/2.In total viewers: CBS, 12.3 million; Fox, 12.1 million; ABC, 11.4 million; NBC, 6.6 million; Univision, 3.7 million; CW, 1.3 million. Contact Rick Kissell at rick.kissell@variety.com

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