“ET” and “Access Hollywood” Climb to Multi-Week Highs

Entertainment Tonight (three-week high 2.8 live plus same day national Nielsen, up 4% from the week before) and Access Hollywood (eight-week high 1.3, up 8%) were the hottest shows on the magazine rack in the session ending May 10.

Despite the declining viewing levels and daily preemptions for news reports on the COVID-19 outbreak that made it very difficult for shows to make any headway, “ET” rose 8% over the past two weeks to tie sister show Inside Edition (2.8, unchanged) for first place in the category.

Also over the prior two weeks “Access Hollywood” has jumped 18% and taken over sole possession of third place in the genre.

Elsewhere in access time periods, as well as in daytime, very few shows were in positive territory.

Judge Judy (three week high 6.4, up 3%), the highest rated court show for the past 1,233 weeks and the overall number one syndicated show season to date, attracted a crowd of more than 9-million daily viewers and was easily the highest rated program in daytime.

Live with Kelly and Ryan (2.1, steady) took the talk show crown for the seventh week in a row.

Dr Phil (2.0, up 5%), the only talker to improve from the week before, moved up to finish a close second. Ellen DeGeneres (1.6, down 6%) was third.  Other gabfests losing steam included Maury (1.1, down 8%), Wendy Williams (1.0, down 9%), Steve Wilkos(1.0, down 9%) and Dr Oz(0.8, down 11%).