'Talent,' 'Kitchen' top Tuesday

It was another tight Tuesday tussle for young-adult supremacy this week, with Fox's combo of ''Hell's Kitchen'' and ''MasterChef'' edging past NBC's ''America's Got Talent'' and ''It's Worth What.'' ABC, meanwhile, got off to an adequate start with ''Take the Money and Run.'' According to preliminary national estimates from Nielsen, Fox's apparent nightly victory in 18-49 was paced by ''Hell's Kitchen'' (2.6/9 in 18-49, 6.2 million viewers overall), which won its timeslot in demos and was on par with last week; it also hit a summer high in total viewers. It was followed by ''MasterChef'' (2.4/7 in 18-49, 5.8 million viewers overall), which was down slightly from last week but placed a solid second to NBC's ''Talent'' in 18-49. As for ''Talent,'' it was on the low side (2.9/8 in 18-49, 11.6 million viewers overall) but again ruled as Tuesday's No. 1 program in both 18-49 and total viewers, a category NBC carried for the night. Kicking off the night for the Peacock was ''It's Worth What'' (1.2/4 in 18-49, 4.8 million viewers overall), which was down from last week and placed fourth among the Big Four in 18-49. At ABC, ''Wipeout'' scored summer series highs for the night's 8 o'clock hour (2.0/6 in 18-49, 6.5 million viewers overall), placing second to Fox's ''Hell's Kitchen.'' It was followed by the debut of reality-based crime/caper show ''Take the Money and Run'' (1.9/5 in 18-49, 5.1 million viewers overall), which retained most of its 18-49 lead-in from ''Wipeout'' , though it did decline in its second half-hour (to 1.7 from 2.0). ''Take the Money'' was on par with the timeslot delivery last summer of ''Downfall'' but performed better than recent timeslot occupant ''101 Ways to Leave a Game Show.'' At 10, ''Combat Hospital'' (1.0/3 in 18-49, 3.8 million viewers overall) was up a tick. CBS saw week-to-week gains for its repeats of ''NCIS'' (1.4/5 in 18-49, 9.5 million viewers overall) and ''NCIS: Los Angeles'' (1.4/4 in 18-49, 8.0 million viewers overall) but continues to draw modest audiences at 10 for original editions of ''48 Hours Mystery'' (1.0/3 in 18-49, 4.8 million viewers overall). Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: Fox, 2.5/8; NBC, 2.4/7; ABC, 1.6/5; Univision, 1.4/4; CBS, 1.3/4. In total viewers: NBC, 9.3 million; CBS, 7.4 million; Fox, 6.0 million; ABC, 5.1 million; Univision, 3.3 million; CW, 0.6 million. Contact Rick Kissell at rick.kissell@variety.com