Bush funeral preemptions fail to depress most entertainment mags

Review based on a national syndicated rating report for the week ending December 9.

A handful of entertainment magazines were among the few shows in positive territory in the session ending December 2 as the vast majority of programs were dragged lower due to heavy preemptions for coverage of the memorial and funeral for President George H.W. Bush.

Magazines in the plus column were Access (1.3 live plus same day national Nielsen rating, up 8% from the week before), which matched its season high and tied TMZ (1.3, up 8%). Also moving up was Extra (1.1, up 10%), which hit a three-week high and overtook Daily Mail TV (1.0, down 9%). In addition Page Six TV (0.7, steady) refused to decline despite not airing on some days in many markets.

Meanwhile the true crime show leaders were red hot. The off-net Dateline (1.3, up 18%) was the top gainer among all strips in syndication and police procedural Chicago PD (1.0, up 11%) equaled its strongest Nielsens to date.

On the other hand, in daytime, none of the 13 veteran talk shows moved up.  Pickler & Ben (new season low 0.3, down 25%) and The Doctors (0.5, down 17%) experienced the sharpest losses.

No. 1 talker Dr Phil (2.7, down 7%) had no trouble extending its winning streak among chatfests to 118 weeks in a row.

Runner-up Ellen DeGeneres (2.3, down 4%) finished slightly ahead of Live with Kelly and Ryan(2.2, down 4%), Steve Harvey’s Steve (1.3, down 7%) and Maury (1.3, down 7%).

Further back were Wendy Williams (1.2, down 8%), Steve Wilkos (1.1, down 8%), Rachael Ray(1.0, down 9%), Dr Oz (1.0, down 9%), The Real (0.7, unchanged) and Jerry Springer (0.4, unchanged).

Syndication’s highest-rated show Judge Judy (6.6, down 13%) also took a preemption-fueled breather, but has now led all first-run and off-net programs every week for the past four months.