Talk shows were hot in the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday
week ending Jan. 24, with all of the top five gab-fest veterans up from the
week before. CBS Television
Distribution's (CTD) Oprah held on to
the lead with a 4% rise to 4.8.
Meanwhile, CTD's Judge Judy
was the highest-rated first-run daytime show for a ninth straight week, ranking
fourth among all syndicated shows with a 4.9 AA rating and first with a 7.6 GAA
rating. Week-to-week Judy dipped
2%.
Back in the talk shows, CTD's Dr. Phil jumped 7% to 3.1.
Disney/ABC's Live With Regis and
Kelly gained 4% to 2.8. Warner
Bros.' Ellen Degeneres jumped 4% to
2.5. NBCU's Maury leaped 11% to 2.1.
CTD's The Doctors dipped 5% to
1.9. CTD's Rachael Ray, NBCU's Jerry
Springer and NBCU's Steve Wilkos
all held steady at 1.8, 1.3 and 1.2, respectively. Warner Bros.' Bonnie Hunt sank 10% to 0.9.
NBCU's Martha Stewart surged
17% to 0.7.
CTD's Judge Joe Brown
was the no. 2 courtroom after Judge Judy,
slipping 4% to 2.3. Warner Bros.' People's Court was up 5% to 2.2. Warner Bros.' Judge Mathis was flat at 1.8.
Twentieth's Judge Alex gained
7% to 1.6. Twentieth's Divorce
Court stumbled 7% down to 1.4. Warner Bros.' Judge Jeanine Pirro logged a 1.1 for the fifth week in a row.
Among rookies, NBCU's The
Office was no. 1, gaining 3% to 3.1.
Other off-net newcomers included CTD's Everybody Hates Chris, which rose 5% to 2.0 and Twentieth's My Name Is Earl, which lost 5% to
1.8. Sony's Dr. Oz remained flat at 2.9 in the emerald city but still led the
new entries in first-run syndication.
Twentieth's Are You Smarter Than a
Fifth Grader rose 6% to 1.7.
Debmar-Mercury's Wendy Williams
and Litton's Street Court were
unchanged at 1.2 and 0.6, respectively.
CTD's Entertainment
Tonight was up 4% to 4.7, after seeing its ratings jump 13% to a 5.1 for
next-day coverage of the Golden Globe Awards on Jan. 18. ET Weekend,
which also led with coverage of the Globes, saw a 14% increase to 2.4. CTD's Inside
Edition tacked on 6% to 3.3. NBCU's Access Hollywood grew 5% to 2.2. Warner Bros.' TMZ dropped 9% to 2.1.
Warner Bros.' Extra got a 12%
ratings bump to 1.9. CTD's The Insider slipped 6% to 1.7.
Game shows were mostly higher from the week before. CTD's Wheel
of Fortune rolled up a 7% gain to 7.5.
CTD's Jeopardy inched ahead 2%
to 6.4. Disney/ABC's Who Wants To Be a Millionaire got an 8%
ratings dividend to 2.7. Debmar-Mercury's Family Feud was up 7% to 1.5.
NBCU's Deal Or No Deal was
flat at 1.2.
Off-net sitcoms were narrowly mixed. Warner Bros.' Two and a Half Men edged up 2% to 5.5. Twentieth's Family Guy was unchanged at 3.5.
Warner Bros.' George Lopez was
up 4% to 2.9. Sony's Seinfeld stayed at a 2.8 and was tied
with CTD's Everybody Loves Raymond,
which rallied 4%. Twentieth's King of the Hill was flat at 2.3 and was
tied by Warner Bros.' Friends, which
improved 5%. Sony's King of Queens and Frasier
each fell 6% to 1.7 and 1.5, respectively.
House of Payne was unchanged
at 1.5.
