“Judge Judy” and “Hot Bench” are highest rated daytime strips for second week

Review based on a national syndicated rating report for the week ending June 21.

Apparently viewers didn’t mind that Judge Judy (three-week high 5.7 live plus same day national Nielsen rating, up 8% from the week before) and Judy’s creation Hot Bench (2.0, steady) were almost entirely in reruns. The shows were syndication’s highest and second highest daytime programs for the second straight week in the session ending June 21.

“Judge Judy,” which has led the court shows for a whopping 1,239 consecutive weeks, was in repeats on all five days but still scored daytime’s biggest increase. Fellow gaveler “Hot Bench” aired reruns on four of the five days and was heavily preempted by news coverage of protests and the coronavirus pandemic but still beat everything else in the daypart.

Dr. Phil (1.9, up 6%) led the talk shows despite airing encore episodes all week.

Live with Kelly and Ryan (1.8, down 5%), which had been the top talker for the previous two weeks, was a close second.

Further back Ellen DeGeneres (1.2, unchanged) was third.

The season’s number one new show, Kelly Clarkson (1.0, steady), whose star just won the Emmy Award as the Outstanding Entertainment Talk Show Host, shot up 25% in the key W25-54 demographic.

In access time periods only two magazines were able to break into positive territory as people using television levels sank to their lowest point of the year.

Inside Edition (2.6, up 4%) led the group while Daily Mail TV (ten week high 0.9, up 13%) jumped into fourth place tying TMZ (0.9, unchanged) for the first time this season.