Something cooking with Chef

Last week, Isaac Hayes, who voices the character of Chef on Comedy Central’s “South Park,” allegedly quit due to his displeasure with an episode that ridiculed Scientology, of which Hayes is an adherent.

“South Park” co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have spent the last few days toiling on a new episode, and tonight the series’ 10th season will kick off with “The Return of Chef,” in which “the town is jolted out of a case of the doldrums when Chef suddenly reappears,” according to a news release. “While Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman are thrilled to have their old friend back, they notice that something about Chef seems different. When Chef’s strange behavior starts getting him in trouble, the boys pull out all the stops to save him.”

Comedy Central spokesman Tony Fox said that Chef would indeed speak in the episode, although he was cagey about how this will be achieved. “You’ll just have to tune in,” he said. But the quick response is in keeping with Stone and Parker’s rapid work habits, he said. “They typically turn around an episode in six days,” Fox said.

Analyzing the latest numbers

CBS may be safe with “The New Adventures of Old Christine,” its divorcee-just-trying-to-make-it comedy with Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Monday’s episode did a respectable 5.2 rating/12 share in adults aged 18 to 49, 15.3 million total viewers, according to early figures from Nielsen Media Research.

The midseason show was up 8% compared with last week’s time slot premiere and retained a solid 94% of the adult audience from its lead-in, “Two and a Half Men.” Between those performances and “CSI: Miami” (6.5 rating/17 share; 19.5 million total viewers), CBS won the night in the demographic and in total viewers.

NBC has a time slot winner with “Deal or No Deal,” which did a 5.5 rating/14 share, 16.6 million total viewers. No, a down-market game show featuring people screaming over briefcases with hidden sums inside is probably not “quality programming” as former NBC entertainment chief Jeff Zucker would define the term. But at this point in its death throes -- uh, life cycle -- NBC needs Nielsen warmth wherever it can find it.

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