Strong Getting Stronger
As the new season gets under way, King World's The Oprah Winfrey Show
and Dr. Phil
are coming on even stronger this year than they did last.
After two weeks of solid shows, Oprah
was the second-highest-rated show in syndication for the second week in a row. Its 6.7 national Nielsen household rating followed only King World's Wheel of Fortune's 8.6; King World's Jeopardy
came in third at 6.4.
Dr. Phil
also has started its second season out with a bang, settling in at a 5.4 for the first two weeks, substantially higher than the 4.5 or so it averaged during the summer and the 4.4 it premiered with last year.
Buena Vista's Who Wants To Be a Millionaire, buoyed by better time periods in some big markets, also is seeing a significant uptick. It improved 35% from last year's premiere week to a 3.1 this year.
Among talkers, Buena Vista's Live With Regis & Kelly
gained 3% week-to-week to a 3.6. Universal's Maury
lost 4% to 2.7. Paramount's Montel Williams
sank 8% to 2.3. Universal's The Jerry Springer Show
was flat at 2.2. Sony's Ricki Lake
jumped 17% to 1.4. NBC Enterprises' The John Walsh Show
was flat at 1.1. King World's Martha Stewart Living
was up 10% to 1.1. Twentieth's Good Day Live
was flat at 1.0. And Universal's Crossing Over With John Edward
rose 13% to 0.9.
In the court genre, none of the top three shows was up. Paramount's Judge Judy
was flat at 4.9, Paramount's Judge Joe Brown
slid 3% to 3.2, and Twentieth's Divorce Court
skidded 4% to 2.6.
Devlin New International Chief at CF
Thomas Devlin was named president of international television distribution for Byron Allen's CF Entertainment. Devlin was senior vice president of distribution for Hearst Entertainment, which was shut down in June.
"I'm highly confident Devlin will achieve our global strategy of establishing 24-hour international networks and distribution of our extensive library ... throughout the world," Allen said. Before Hearst, Devlin was vice president and general manager of Worldvision Home Video.
