All rise for daytime leaders “Judge Judy” and “Hot Bench”

Review based on a national syndicated rating report for the week ending July 5, 2020.

For the fourth week in a row court shows Judge Judy (5.6 live plus same day national Nielsen rating, steady with the week before) and Judy’s creation Hot Bench (2.0, up 5%) were the highest and second highest rated strips in all of daytime syndication.

In the session ending July 5, the frame leading into the Fourth of July weekend, a number of shows slipped to season low levels. However, even with a full week of repeats “Judy” nearly tripled the rating of anything else in daytime while matching its second biggest rating since May. “Bench,” the brainchild of Judge Judy Sheindlin, outperformed every other daytime show and equaled a six-week high despite being in reruns on four of the five days.

People’s Court (1.3, unchanged) and Judge Mathis (0.8, down 11%) were next in line among the courtrooms.

Dr. Phil (1.9, up 6%) was the talk show leader for a third consecutive week and the 187^th time in the last 200 weeks.

Live with Kelly and Ryan (new season low 1.6, down 6%) was on hiatus, airing mostly repackaged shows.

Ellen DeGeneres (new series low 1.1, down 8%) tied Maury (1.1, unchanged) for third place among talkers.

Among the two top talk newcomers, both of which were rapidly renewed, Kelly Clarkson (0.9, down 10%) and Tamron Hall (0.7, down 13%) were hurt by repeats and preemptions in numerous markets for breaking news of the coronavirus pandemic.