A growing sizzle from Fox's 'Hell's Kitchen'
   It’s certainly no “Dancing With the Stars.” But in a summer when cute, cuddly reality shows like “Stars” and “Hit Me Baby One More Time” have become hits, Fox’s “Hell’s Kitchen” is proving that some viewers still want their reality shows with an edge.
   Monday night Fox aired the third episode of Gordon Ramsay’s reality competition, featuring the ill-tempered British chef in tirade after tirade, and the series averaged its best numbers yet, a 3.7 18-49 rating and 7.43 million total viewers, according to Nielsen overnights.
   Monday night’s rating among 18-49s is an 8.8 percent increase over the 3.4 the show averaged over its first two episodes. Viewership was up 7.8 percent over a 6.89 million average for episodes one and two.
   “Kitchen’s” 3.7 made it Monday night’s highest-rated show in 18-49s, and helped Fox to a first place finish for the night with a 3.1 average rating and a 9 share. CBS was second at 2.5/7, NBC third at 2.1/6, ABC fourth at 1.9/5, UPN fifth at 1.1/3 and the WB sixth at 1.0/3.
   Fox led at 8 p.m. with a 2.5 average for a repeat of “Nanny 911,” followed by 1.9 average for NBC for “Dateline.” ABC and CBS tied for third, each with a 1.5 average, ABC for “The Scholar” and CBS for a 30-minute “48 Hours” (1.6) and a repeat of “Yes, Dear” (1.4).
   At 9 p.m. Fox led with its 3.7 average for “Hell’s Kitchen.” CBS was second with a 2.8 average for repeats of “Everybody Loves Raymond” (2.5) and “Two and a Half Men” (3.1) and NBC third with a 2.0 average for a repeat of “Las Vegas.”
   CBS took the lead at 10 p.m. with a 3.3 rating for a repeat of “CSI: Miami.” NBC averaged a 2.5 for a rerun of “Medium,” putting it in a second-place tie with ABC, which aired the last hour of the movie “Men in Black II.”
   Among households, CBS led the night with a 6.0 average rating and a 10 share. NBC finished second at 4.6/8, Fox third at 4.4/7, ABC fourth at 3.6/6, and the WB and UPN tied for fifth at 1.7/3.

G+J extends deadline for Fast Company & Inc.
The auction for Gruner + Jahr titles Inc. and Fast Company has been pushed back, and a buyer may not be known until next week. Mark Edmiston, managing director of Ad Media Partners, the firm that's handling the auction, tells Media Life it was postponed because bidders must look at a purchase agreement explaining terms of the deal, and that contract did not go out to the bidders until Friday. Bids are due by the end of the business day today, and Edmiston says he will know the leaders tonight. He hopes to talk to them tomorrow, but a buyer probably won’t be official until the end of the week at the earliest, possibly early next week. The New York Post’s Keith Kelly reports Time Warner has added its name to the list of suitors, joining Alta Communications, Abry Partners, Morningstar founder Joe Mansueto, The Economist Newspaper Group and Newhouse’s Advance Publications. G + J paid a combined $750 million for the two titles five years ago, but is only expected to receive $35 million to $40 million for the pair.

Maximum Jackson: 31M tune in for VIP verdict
It was almost impossible to escape the Michael Jackson verdict Monday. It aired live on 13 networks, and so not surprisingly, it got a big tune-in. Between 4:43 p.m. and 6 p.m., when the verdict was delivered in the Santa Maria courthouse, 11 English-language networks combined for a 21.1 household rating and 47 share. They attracted 28.1 million total viewers, while two Spanish-language networks averaged a 14.7/34 and 2.47 million total viewers from 4:48 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. ABC, NBC, CBS, E!, MTV MTV2, Univision and Telemundo all preempted regularly scheduled programming to air the verdict. CNN, Headline News, MSNBC, Fox News and Court TV also carried it. Court TV set a record with 3.4 million total viewers and a 3.4 household rating between 5 and 5:15, its biggest audience ever. It was the No. 1 destination for adults 18-49 and 25-54 on cable to watch the verdict. Nearly 8 million people watched the verdict in the U.K., where the BBC delivered a special report at 10 p.m. local time. 

Crave more Jacko? He may get a reality show
If you’re already starting to go through Jackson withdrawal without the hourly updates on his court case, good news: Jackson and his train wreck of a family may be the subject of a new reality show. Endeavor and Jackson family friend Darnell Sutton have reportedly contacted networks including Fox, ABC and a few cable channels about a limited-run series featuring the Jacksons. The pitch was made last week, before Jackson was acquitted of child molestation charges, and it would focus on how the family pulled together during the trial and how they’re recovering afterward. But the show is far from a sure thing. Despite all the interest in the verdict, mainstream celebrities haven’t fared all that well in the reality genre. Has-beens or never-weres, such as Donald Trump, Jessica Simpson and any one of the “Dancing With the Stars” D-listers, have proven a better draw than big star Britney Spears. And though many of the Jacksons are hungry for publicity, it’s not clear which family members would actually participate. Super Bowl stripper Janet, for example, may be less interested in the spotlight than Tito.

TNT 'Closes' in on viewer record but MTV sinks
TNT set a basic cable record with the premiere of Kyra Sedgwick’s new drama “The Closer” by drawing 7 million total viewers and 5.26 million households Monday night. But while “Closer,” TNT’s “Into the West” and Lifetime’s “Strong Medicine” all helped give cable a very strong weekend, the 2005 “MTV Movie Awards” Thursday performed as poorly as the summer box office, averaging a seven-year-low 4.66 million total viewers. “Closer” passed last year’s “The 4400” on USA as the most-watched ad-supported cable premiere ever. The show benefited, as did “West,” from running promos in front of big NBA playoff audiences the past six weeks. The “Movie Awards,” on the other hand, suffered from a slow box office and competition with the NBA Finals on ABC. The audience was the smallest since 3.86 million watched in 1998 and was well off last year’s 5.88 million.

Study: TV could warp your gentle child's mind
Don’t let junior in the room while you’re watching “The Sopranos.” Children who have been exposed to high levels of media violence have shown brain function patterns similar to children with aggressive behavior disorders, according to new research in the Journal of Computer Assisted Tomography's May/June issue. Researchers found children with high levels of exposure to media violence showed less activity in the part of the brain linked to self control and attention problems, the same results they found for children with aggressive behavior tendencies. Media violence was defined as television or video games depicting human injury. Dr. Vincent P. Matthews, a radiology professor from Indiana University School of Medicine who led the study, said it was the first demonstration of differences in brain function being associated with media violence exposure. Researchers cautioned that more testing is necessary to draw a conclusive link.