Court shows got the most favorable verdict of any genre from
Nielsen in the week ending April 11.
Despite warmer weather and an average PUT level decline of more than
500,000 viewers from the previous session, five of the seven gavelers were up
week-to-week, while the other two held steady.
CBS Television Distribution's (CTD) Judge Judy beat Oprah
(CTD) and every other first-run daytime show with a 4.6, up 5% from the week
before and 10% from last year at this time.
Judy also jumped 33% among young women 18-34. Top chatfest Oprah was flat at 4.0 and down 13% from the same week last
year. Among the other TV jurists, CTD's Judge Joe Brown rose 5% to 2.2, taking
second place in the legal system. Warner
Bros.' People's Court advanced 5% to
2.0. Warner Bros.' Judge Mathis held steady at 1.6.
Twentieth's Judge Alex
improved 8% to 1.4. Twentieth's Divorce
Court also clicked for an 8% gain to 1.3. Warner Bros.' Judge Jeannine Pirro was even at 1.0.
Veteran talk shows moving up from the week before included
Disney/ABC's Live With Regis and Kelly,
which added 8% to 2.6 and CTD's The
Doctors, which hiked 6% to 1.8.
Warner Bros.' Ellen Degeneres
and NBCU's Maury, Jerry Springer and Steve Wilkos were all unchanged at 2.1,
1.9, 1.3, and 1.2 respectively. CTD's Dr. Phil dipped 4% to 2.4 and Rachael Ray receded 6% to 1.5.
In rookie action, NBCU's The
Office closed out the week down 3% to 2.9 in households and ranked as
syndications no. 1 show among women 18-34 with a 2.7 in the demo. In first-run, Sony's Dr. Oz rose 9% to 2.5 and Twentieth's Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader, Debmar-Mercury's Wendy Williams and Litton's Street Court were all flat at 1.5, 1.0
and 0.6, respectively.
CTD's The Insider
was the biggest percentage gainer among magazines, growing 6% to 1.8, while its
Insider Weekend surged 18% to
1.3. Newsmag leader ET (CTD) was unchanged at 4.1.
CTD's Inside Edition inched up
3% to 3.1. NBCU's Access Hollywood and Warner Bros.' TMZ each fell 5% to 1.9.
Warner Bros.' Extra was flat
at 1.7.
CTD's Wheel of Fortune
was the top game, edging ahead 2% to 6.5.
CTD's Jeopardy dropped 2% to
5.5. Disney/ABC's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire got a 4% dividend to 2.4. Debmar-Mercury's Family Feud was up 8% to 1.4.
Off-net sitcoms were narrowly mixed. Warner Bros.' Two and a Half Men stayed flat at 4.7. Twentieth's Family Guy and CTD's Everybody
Loves Raymond were each down 3% to 3.3 and 3.0, respectively. Sony's Seinfeld
grew 4% to 2.8. Warner Bros.' George Lopez was unchanged at 2.7. Twentieth's King of the Hill climbed 4% to 2.4.
Warner Bros.' Friends faded 5%
to 2.1. House of Payne was up 6% to 1.7.
Sony's King of Queens remained
even at 1.5. Frasier fell 7% to 1.4.
