“Jeopardy” gets viewer support after host tells world of illness
Review based on a national syndicated rating report for the week ending March 10, 2019.
Highlighting the session ending March 10, Jeopardy (five week high 6.9 live plus same day national Nielsen rating, up 1% from the week before) handily topped all syndicated game shows after longtime host Alex Trebek revealed that he had been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Fellow quiz strips Wheel of Fortune (6.6, unchanged) and Family Feud (6.5, up 2%) trailed Trebek’s program.
Despite the jump “Jeopardy” was no match for ratings powerhouse Judge Judy (7.5, up 4%), which continued to clobber every show on the Nielsen chart for an epic 35th straight week.
Meanwhile after taking two months off due to illness and injury Wendy Williams returned to her eponymous program (new season high 1.5, up 36% following a week of reruns), landing in fourth place among the talk shows.
Dr. Phil (3.1, up 3%) led the talkers for the 131st week in a row despite being partly in repeats.
Others outperforming “Wendy” were Live with Kelly and Ryan (2.4, steady), which snared sole possession of second place for a second straight week, just missing its season high, and Ellen DeGeneres (1.8, down 18%), which aired encore episodes all week.
In the hunt were Maury (1.4, unchanged) and an all-rerun week of Steve Harvey’s Steve (1.3, steady).
The hottest show on the magazine rack was Daily Mail TV (new season high 1.2, up 9%), which tied Extra (1.2, steady) and scored both the largest week to week and year to year increases among the top seven in the category. Also seeing a sharp annual upswing was Access (1.4, up 8% from last year), which leapfrogged over TMZ (1.3, down 7% from last year).
Among the foremost rookie shows, Chicago PD (1.1, up 10% from the week before) equaled its biggest rating yet, while shooting up 20% in the coveted W25-54 age group.
