Bust out the footlong subs and, in a nod to last night’s Chuck season three premiere, a big tub o’ cheese balls, because the spy guy dramedy that sparked fans to fight for its survival last season debuted season three with some pretty awesome ratings numbers.

The rundown:

– Last night’s two-hour season premiere attracted 7.7 million viewers for the first hour, and 7.2 million for the second hour

– Chuck‘s viewership was up 58 percent from its lead-in, NBC’s Dateline

– The season three premiere’s ratings were up 21 percent on the show’s average ratings for season two

– The season premiere boasted the show’s highest average viewership ratings and viewership in the 18-49 demographic since last year’s post-Super Bowl 3-D episode

Additionally, as Alan Sepinwall points out at What’s Alan Watching?, one of the few bright spots in the ridiculous NBC/Leno/Conan mess is that NBC is now going to need a whole lot of programming to fill the vacancy left by The Jay Leno Show at 10PM, which only bodes well for Chuck‘s continued survival. And now with this excellent ratings news for the season premiere … it’s definitely looking good for Chuck (Zachary Levi) and company.

Well, except for Emmett. R.I.P., Mr. Milbarge (Tony Hale).

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