“Kelly Clarkson,” “Tamron Hall,” “Judge Jerry” bow to big national ratings

Review based on a national syndicated rating report for the week ending September 15.

Despite having to overcome preemptions caused by the Democratic debates and 9-11 memorial coverage in some markets, a number of high profile syndies racked up glittering national numbers for their opening weeks of the season in the session ending September 15.

Among the new talkers, The Kelly Clarkson Show (premiere week 1.6 live plus same day national Nielsen rating) turned heads with the biggest debut week of any first-run strip since 2012. That placed “Clarkson’s” initial weekly outing right behind only the well-established mega-hits “Ellen,” “Live” and “Dr. Phil” among all 14 syndicated talk shows on the ratings scorecard.

Tamron Hall (1.0), which has fewer secondary runs than “Clarkson,” still drew a crowd of more than 1.3-million daily viewers. Other than “Clarkson,” the “Tamron” rating was the highest debut week for any first-run show since 2016 with the exception of the “Steve Harvey” reboot. Among all talkers, “Tamron’s” first week Nielsens leapfrogged over such veterans as “Wendy Williams” and “Dr. Oz” along with several other highly-regarded strips.

Mel Robbins (0.4/2 weighted metered market average) launched September 16. While the show’s national numbers for its first week will not be publicly available until October 1, its overnight ratings fell 50% from the program’s year-ago time periods.

Among gavelers new court show Judge Jerry (1.1 national rating), starring Jerry Springer, opened September 9 to the best first week’s national Nielsen rating for an all-new legal strip since the 2014 premiere week of courtroom smash hit “Hot Bench.”

Returning strips of note included top talker Dr. Phil (2.3, up 5% from the week before), which kicked off its 18^th season in first place among the chat shows for the 158^th consecutive week.

Live with Kelly and Ryan (1.9, steady) held its ground even though it did not air in home market New York on September 11. That tied the season 17 opener of Ellen DeGeneres (1.9, up 36%), which now follows the new “Kelly Clarkson” in the country’s six largest markets.

Syndication’s number one show Judge Judy (16-week high 6.7, up 10%) took the wraps off season 24 and crushed all programs for the seventh week in a row.

In magazine action, the sole show moving up was Access Hollywood (27-week high 1.4, up 27%), which generated plenty of ratings steam with its 24^th season premiere. The show also surged 40% in the advertiser-coveted W25-54 age group and jumped 17% year to year, the most of any mag.

Among game shows, the hottest was the Alex Trebek-hosted Jeopardy (5.5, up 20%), which opened its 36^th season.