“Judge Judy” and “Judge Jerry” nab Nielsen honors
Review based on a national syndicated rating report for the week ending February 23.
In the week ending February 23, when very few shows were able to gain ground due to tons of Daytona 500 preemptions and the lightly-viewed President’s Day, rookie hit Judge Jerry (0.9 live plus same day national Nielsen rating, up 13% from the week before) made a double digit splash to the upside.
The highly anticipated courtroom newcomer, which stars daytime mainstay Jerry Springer and has already been greenlit for a second season, crushed the other new gavelers for a 24th straight week even though “Jerry” was in reruns on all five days.
Of course, the court show leader by a mile was Judge Judy (6.5, down 6%), which slaughtered the veteran legal programs for the 1,222nd consecutive week. In addition “Judy” – which has ruled all of first-run syndication in the household numbers for more than a decade – was the highest rated show of any type for the 24th time in the past 30 weeks, despite not being able to air its primary run in five of the top 11 markets due to the auto race.
Dr. Phil (2.6, steady) was talk show king by open daylight, leading the pack for the 177th time in the past 181 weeks.
Elsewhere, the Nevada Democratic primary debate caused preemptions among the magazines. Moreover the shows were without the Oscars, which had buoyed the category in the previous frame.
Entertainment Tonight (2.9, down 3%) was the highest-rated magazine for the seventh week in a row.
Also of note, Access Hollywood (1.4, steady) and Daily Mail TV (0.8, steady) were the only magazines in the big six that managed to avoid the post Oscar slump and hold all of their Academy Award week ratings, despite the blackouts.
