“Judge Judy” jumps to big lead at midpoint of November sweep

Review based on a national syndicated rating report for the week ending November 11.

Courtroom ratings steamroller Judge Judy (new season high 7.5 live plus same day national Nielsen, up 3% from the week before) clocked its strongest numbers in nine months and opened up a wide lead over all other shows at the mid-point of the sweep race in the session ending November 11.

That marks the 15^th consecutive week that “Judy” has finished first among all syndicated shows in households and its widest margin of victory yet this season.

Meanwhile very few of the other programs were able to chalk up any gains at all because, unlike “Judge Judy,” they failed to overcome the many preemptions for coverage of midterm elections, the Thousand Oaks California bar massacre and the West Coast wildfires. In fact, not one of the gavelers besides “Judy” was able to improve from the prior session.

Among other daytime shows Ellen DeGeneres (new season high 2.3, up 10%) was the only talker in the top six with an increase. “Ellen” edged into sole possession of the No. 2 spot, behind Dr. Phil (3.0, steady), for the first time since the week ending May 20. As usual “Phil” led the talk genre by open daylight for the 114^th straight week. 

Live with Kelly and Ryan (2.1, down 9%) took a breather and landed in third place after jumping to a new season record with its highly rated Halloween episode in the previous frame.

The rest of the top six in talk were Maury (1.4), Steve (1.3) and Wendy Williams (1.3), with all three shows stable. Of special note “Steve” came up big in Chicago, racing ahead 27% to a new season high 1.4/5 in the No. 3 market, and outperforming its year-ago time period by 17%.

In access many strips found tough sledding. Not a single game went up and the only magazine to move ahead was Inside Edition (3.0, up 3%), which slipped in front of sister show Entertainment Tonight (2.8, down 3%). TMZ (1.2, unchanged) held on to third place among magazines. Immediately behind it was Extra (1.1, steady), which tied Access for the first time in 18 weeks and finished just ahead of Daily Mail TV (1.0, steady).