Top talkers shine as summer fades

Review based on a national syndicated rating report for the week ending September 23.

As summer came to a conclusion in the session ending September 23, the big talk shows – led by Dr. Phil – staged a rousing ratings rally.  However, the standout of the week was Nielsen powerhouse Judge Judy, which became the first show of the season to breach the lofty seven rating level, outperforming everything in syndication by a mile.

Dr. Phil (15-week high 3.0 live plus same day national Nielsen rating, up 7% from the week before) had no trouble setting the pace in talk, topping the category for the 107^th straight week.

The race for second place in households wound up in a dead heat between Live with Kelly and Ryan (2.1, steady), which maintained its ratings despite several storm-related preemptions, and Ellen DeGeneres (2.1, up 5%).  Meanwhile “Live” finished 13% ahead of “Ellen” in the all-important W25-54 demo.

Others in talk’s top five with big weeks were Maury (1.4, up 8%) and Steve Harvey’s Steve (17-week high 1.3, up 8%).

At the top of the chart Judge Judy (17-week high 7.1, up 3%) was syndication’s household ratings champion for the eighth session in a row.

Also in the plus column was Hot Bench (14-week high 2.2, up 5%), which ranked as the third highest strip in daytime, after only ‘Judy’ and ‘Phil.’

In magazine ratings news Daily Mail TV (1.0) took the wraps off season two with an 11% jump over last year.  Fellow sophomore Page Six TV began its second season up over last year’s premiere week numerous top markets, including a 233% improvement in Washington DC, where it also out-rated year-ago time period occupant Dr Oz by 43%.

Elsewhere, the second week of Face The Truth (0.8), maintained 100% of its premiere week score, which was the second highest first-run debut since September 2017.  Another newcomer, Caught in Providence (0.3/1 metered market average), started September 24.

In the true crime genre, the off-net Dateline (18-week high 1.4, up 17%) easily outperformed the off-cable True Crime Files (0.3, unchanged).