Fox Scores Big Summer With ‘Nation’s Dumbest’

It turns out Americans love watching dumb celebrities on television.

Nation’s Dumbest, a reality competition series that stars the likes of Hilaria Baldwin, Dr. Drew Pinsky, Steve-O and JoJo Siwa, has become Fox’s biggest summer debut in four years.

The series, which is hosted by British comedian Jack Whitehall, debuted on July 15 with 2.3M total viewers over its first seven days, per Nielsen.

This was its biggest summer launch number since Fox revived Don’t Forget The Lyrics with Niecy Nash in 2022. The broadcast network said that the series has grown its audience over the last three weeks in L+7 viewing among adults aged 18-49 with the most recent episode landing a 0.40 share. It also said that the BBC Studios-produced show had reached 8.7M viewers so far across its run.

Nation’s Dumbest is one of a number of shows that has helped Fox bolster its summer numbers (the World Cup also surely couldn’t have hurt). It said that primetime viewing in July was up 31% among adults aged 18-49 and up 40% among total viewers compared with last year.

Other titles that have helped include the third season of gameshow The 1% Club, which the network said is having its most-watched season, The Quiz with Balls, which the network said is “on pace” for its most-watched season among total viewers and its second season is up 22% in seven-day multiplatform viewing, while it noted Beat Shazam delivered its “most-streamed episode in seven years.”

Kitchen Nightmares also cooked up its highest-rated premiere in two years and MasterChef remains its most-streamed summer series.