“Judge Judy” tops ratings chart for milestone dozen weeks in a row

Review based on a national syndicated rating report for the week ending October 20.

Shrugging off preemptions for the California wildfires in some West Coast markets, including fifth-largest San Francisco, and coverage of the Columbus Day parade in New York, Nielsen buzz-saw Judge Judy (6.3 live plus same day national rating, steady with the week before) made it a dozen weeks in a row as syndication’s number one show in the session ending October 20. “Judy” was also the dominant court show for a staggering 1,204 consecutive weeks.

Meanwhile, although the frame featured very few programs in the plus column, Access Hollywood (88-week high 1.5, up 7%) was a standout and the sole magazine on the upswing. Exec Producer Maureen Fitzpatrick’s hit newsmag drew nearly 2.0-million daily viewers on average and was also the only first-run strip of any type to score a new season high. 

Among talk shows Dr. Phil (2.3, down 4%) spoke loudest, leading the category for the 163^rd straight week.

Live with Kelly and Ryan (2.0, down 5%) earned second highest honors for the 34^th consecutive week.

Turning to the closely followed rookies, The Kelly Clarkson Show (1.4, steady) and Tamron Hall (1.0, steady) both held their ground at previous high levels and easily outperformed the freshman class.

Clarkson attracted a crowd of almost 1.9-million daily viewers, while Hall drew close to 1.3-million viewers each day. The third member of the talk show newcomer pack, Mel Robbins (0.4, unchanged) was well behind the top two, averaging 479,000 daily viewers.

Jerry Springer’s Judge Jerry (0.9, steady) continued to crush the new court shows with greater ratings than the other rookie gavelers combined. Personal Injury Court (0.5, unchanged) was next, followed by Protection Court (0.3, unchanged).