Hot Holzhauer hikes “Jeopardy” ratings to 14-year high

Review based on a national syndicated rating report for the week ending May 5.

“Jeopardy!” savant James Holzhauer keeps winning and ratings for the game show keep rising.

For the session ending May 5 – the first full frame of the May sweep – Jeopardy! (8.3 live plus same day national Nielsen, up 11% from the week before) clocked its best numbers since the week ending March 6, 2005.

Although the professional gambler from Las Vegas has been put on hiatus from May 6-17 while the show airs a tournament, Holzhauer, who has already won more games than anyone except all-time “Jeopardy!” champ Ken Jennings and has amassed more than $1.6-million, will be back in action on May 20.

The Holzhauer-powered “Jeopardy!” has also given a nice boost to the show that follows or leads in to it in numerous cities, Wheel of Fortune (6.4, up 10%).

Judge Judy (7.2, up 3%), syndication’s season-to-date household ratings leader by a very wide margin, also continued to flourish, leaping to an eight-week high.

In addition Hot Bench (2.2, up 5%), a Judge Judy Sheindlin creation, was the overall No. 3 daytime show behind only “Judy” and “Dr. Phil.”

Dr. Phil (2.9, up 7%) topped the talkers for a spectacular 139^th consecutive week.

Live with Kelly and Ryan (2.1, down 5%) took second place honors, continuing to outperform Ellen DeGeneres (2.0, up 5%) for a 10^th straight week.

Rounding out the six most successful of the 14 talk shows in the household ratings were Wendy Williams (1.4, unchanged), Maury (1.3, down 7%) and Steve Harvey’s Steve (1.2, steady).

Back in access time periods several entertainment magazines enjoyed strong weeks. Entertainment Tonight (2.8, up 8%) was the category leader. Also coming up big were Access (1.2, up 9%) and the recently renewed Daily Mail TV (1.0, up 11%), which surged 25% in the coveted W25-54 age group and finished in a tie with Extra (1.0, steady). Also of note, “Access” and “Daily Mail” were the only magazines in the top seven to hold 100% of last year’s ratings.

Shooting up 27% from last year was true crime standout Dateline (1.4, up 8%), which overpowered all rivals in the genre for the 34^th week in a row.