“Ellen” opens ‘12 Days of Giveaways’ and gets season high

Review based on a national syndicated rating report for the week ending November 29, 2020.

Nielsen’s gift to Ellen DeGeneres (1.3 national live plus same day, up 18% from the week before) as the show kicked off its annual “12 Days of Giveaways” in the Thanksgiving Week session ending November 29 was the show’s highest rating since the week ending May 31, 2020. 

Most other shows were hit with sometimes severe declines due to massive holiday preemptions, but “Ellen” was one of many daytime strips able not to count the lightly-viewed Thanksgiving and Black Friday in its average due to extreme coverage losses on those days.

That said, ratings for the long-running program were still off 35% from the same week last year.

Topping the talk shows was Live with Kelly and Ryan (1.9, steady), which has been first or tied for first in eight of the past 12 weeks. Dr. Phil (1.8, down 10%), which did not benefit from breakouts, was a strong second.

Of note, newcomer Drew Barrymore (0.5, steady) surged 50% in the advertiser-coveted W25-54 age group to a 0.3, tying Tamron Hall, Rachael Ray and Dr. Oz in the key demo, despite being preempted at least 17 times in the top 40 markets on Black Friday.

Elsewhere in daytime, courtroom champ Judge Judy (6.0, down 2%) was syndication’s most-watched show with an average 8,611,000 daily viewers and ranked as the No. 1 program overall in the household ratings for the 11^th time in the past 15 weeks.

Judge Judy Sheindlin’s creation Hot Bench (new season high 1.8, up 6%) was the only first-run strip beside “Ellen” to score a new season best.

In access time periods, game shows Family Feud (new season low 5.0, down 12%), Jeopardy (5.0, down 15%) and Wheel of Fortune (4.9, down 13%) all lost ground.  Magazines were also hard hit and down across the board.