If the national barter ratings for the week ending July 31 are any indication, the more back-to-back runs that a show has, the better it looks to advertisers.
Take the case of Entertainment Tonight, Paramount’s dominant access news magazine cash cow for decades.
In the Gross Average Audience (GAA) rankings used to sell shows to advertisers, Judge Judy (6.9) and Judge Joe Brown (4.6) beat ET (4.2). In fact, it marked the fourth consecutive week that Joe Brown has led ET, the top magazine show, in the GAA ranking.
Of course, those are both Paramount shows as well, so the money is staying in the family.
ET has multiple runs, too, but is does not benefit from them the way the top two daytime court shows do since the reruns usually air in late night instead of back-to-back in many markets, as do the judge shows.
GAA ratings are more sensitive to cumed, or combined, ratings than Average Audience (AA) rankings, where ET (5.0) holds a slight season-to-date lead over Judge Judy (4.9), the top-rated court show. The second-ranked court show, Judge Joe, is averaging a 3.4.
ET finished off slightly from the 4.3 it achieved a year ago in both the AA (average audience) and GAA rankings.
Paramount attributes its performance during the week to baseball preemptions in many markets, lower viewing levels, promos appearing in reruns of other shows surrounding it, and weather-related preemptions two days that week in Baltimore.
Other magazine shows also suffered, with Inside Edition down 6% for the week and year to 2.9 AA, while Extra (2.0) slipped 9% for the week and 5% for the year. Access Hollywood (2.2) remained flat on both fronts.
By contrast, Judge Judy was up year to year, along with People’s Court, Divorce Court, and Judge Mathis.
Judge Joe was down slightly for the year, while Judge Hatchett saw the most erosion year-to-year with a 24% decline.
The last week in July is traditionally one of the lowest rated weeks of the season, particularly for strips (with the notable exception of Oprah Winfrey, which climbed 4% for the week and 2% for the year to 5.7). But weekly first-run hours were all higher for the week.
The weekend edition of ET (2.8) gained 12% in households and 31% in women 25-54 to lead the pack, and remained on par with its year-ago average.
Relationship shows suffered during the week, with both Blind Date and Elimidate down 31% from a year ago to 1.1, on par with the previous week.
