Dr. Phil is Healthiest Talk Show

Review based on a national syndicated rating report for the week ending January 16, 2022.

Dr. Phil (new season high 2.0, up 5% from the week before and up 33% over the prior three weeks) was the top rated talk show in the session ending January 16. In delivering its second straight first place finish, syndicated television’s most watched doctor (with 2,847,000 viewers each day) charted its best rating since February, 2021 and grew 11% from last year at this time. That was the biggest year to year improvement of any talker in the top eight.

Live with Kelly and Ryan (1.7, up 6%) was a strong second. Ellen DeGeneres (1.0, down 9%) and Kelly Clarkson (1.0, steady) ended in a dead heat for third.

Further down the chat fest list Dr. Oz (0.6, up 20%) exited national syndication on a positive note, although the show was down 14% from last year at this time.

At the top of the overall chart, Jeopardy (6.5, down 2%) headed slightly south despite the historic streak of contestant Amy Schneider, which broke another record January 14^th by knocking James Holzhauer out of the third-place spot for the most consecutive games won in the show’s history. As of January 25, Schneider had become the No. 2 all-time winner with 40 straight games.

Judge Judy (5.4, steady) continued to rule the court shows for the 1,321^st week in a row, remaining at its season high. In addition, Judy (1.8 demo rating) was syndication’s second most successful strip in the advertiser-coveted W25-54 age group, topping both Jeopardy (1.7 demo rating) and Wheel of Fortune (1.7 demo rating) while behind only leader Family Feud (2.0 demo rating).

The top magazine shows moving up were Entertainment Tonight (2.0, up 11%) and Access Hollywood (0.8, up 14%). Of note, Extra (0.6, steady) erupted for 50% increase in the advertiser-coveted W25-54 demo.