After a slow season in ratings in the past spring, Fox topped all expectations on Wednesday, as "American Idol" showed it could still garner the hopes and dreams of Americans far and wide, reaching an all time record with a reported 31.66 million people watching David Cook winning the season finale.

But as Cook was taking it all on Wednesday, cooks on “Hells’ Kitchen” were already singing it up for Fox just the night before as the show reached 9.4 million viewers and stepped above CBS’s “NCIS”’s repeat for the night. “Moment of Truth” came second in the demographics (7.3 million viewers at 8 PM) and ensured Fox’s success in the networks’ standoff this season.

ABC had its worst ratings yet on Tuesday with the “Dancing with the Stars” finale but bounced back and came in second for the week while CBS had won the night on Wednesday with “The Unit” but came in third for the week. NBC came third in the overall rating, bolstered by a repeat of the popular “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and by managing to stay slightly ahead of ABC in the evening’s news’ standoff.

As the summer shows’ premieres were kicked off last week by Fox’s new “So You Think You Can Dance”, viewers seemed reluctant to take their place in front of the TV set again. “Dance” got only 8.7 million viewers on Thursday (the contest’s lowest yet- from 9.5 million last year), while ABC’s “The Bachelorette” got only 8.1 million viewers (about a million less than when it aired in 2005).