Bravo's TOP CHEF Finale Hits Season High in All Key Demos

Bravo Media's "Top Chef" crowned its 10th winner, and the franchise's second female winner ever, Kristen Kish, with the highest-rated episode of the season among all key demos on Wednesday with over 1.85 million live same day total viewers, up 7 percent from the prior week (2/20/13), according to Nielsen. The episode earned over 1.17 million adults 25-54 and over 1 million adults 18-49, up 3 percent and 5 percent from last week, respectively.

Kristen's comeback from winning BravoTV.com's award-winning Transmedia competition series, Last Chance Kitchen, landed her a spot in the final two, and in last night's finale she faced off against Brooke Williamson, the chef with the most wins throughout the series' 10thseason. The two finalists were tasked with cooking five dishes live in front of a studio audience - including host Padma Lakshmi, judges Tom Colicchio, Hugh Acheson, Emeril Lagasse and Gail Simmons, and all nine previous "Top Chef" winners for the first time ever.

As previously announced, the Emmy and James Beard Award-winning series and the No. 1 rated food show on cable, "Top Chef," will be returning for an eleventh season later this year. "Top Chef" is produced by the Emmy Award-winning Magical Elves for Bravo. Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz serve as executive producers.

Wednesday's "Watch What Happens Live" featuring Top Chef winner Kristen Kish and finalist Brooke Williamson delivered 866,000 total viewers, up 48 percent from the most recent Wednesday episode (vs. 584, 000 on 2/13/13). "Watch What Happens Live" is produced by Embassy Row for Bravo. Michael Davies and Andy Cohen serve as executive producers.

Bravo is a program service of NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment, a division of NBCUniversal, one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience. Bravo has been an NBCUniversal cable network since December 2002 and was the first television service dedicated to film and the performing arts when it launched in December 1980. For more information, visit www.BravoTV.com.

Source: Nielsen Media Research, LS data. No. 1 food show on cable stat based on L7 through 02/10/13, P18-49 avg most recent seasons, premieres only.