“Jeopardy” ratings race to six-week high as Holzhauer again shatters show’s single-day winnings record

Review based on a national syndicated rating report for the week ending April 21.

Professional gambler James Holzhauer smashed his own single-day winnings record April 17 on Jeopardy (6.7 live plus same day national Nielsen, up 5% from the week before) and sent the show’s ratings to a six-week high and the very top of the entire syndication chart in the session ending April 21.

The increase gave “Jeopardy” a solid lead over game show heavyweights Family Feud (6.1, up 2%) and Wheel of Fortune (5.9, unchanged) and even a slight edge over an all-rerun week of syndication’s gold standard Judge Judy (6.5, down 3%).

“Judy,” which set a modern record by dominating all syndies in the household ratings for the prior 40 weeks, aired repeats on all five days and was one of several shows not seen in its entirety in numerous markets due to news of the April 15 Notre Dame fire and the April 18 public release of the Mueller Report.

Turning to the talkers Dr Phil (2.7, down 4%) led the category for the 137th week in a row.

Live with Kelly and Ryan (2.3, up 5%) sprinted ahead 5% year over year and garnered talk’s greatest annual growth among the top three (up 5% year to year). In addition “Live” beat Ellen DeGeneres (1.9, unchanged) for an eighth straight week.

Rounding out the big six were Wendy Williams (1.5, up 7%), Maury (1.3, unchanged) and Steve (1.2, steady).

Meanwhile one of the few strips to capture double digit growth for the week was closely followed newcomer Chicago PD (0.9, up 13%), which also shot up 25% in the coveted W25-54 age group.