“Judge Judy” rules syndication ratings for six straight months

Review based on a national syndicated rating report for the week ending January 27.

Syndicated shows are clearly getting used to being punched out by “Judge Judy.”

For example in the generally lively session ending January 27, the last full week before the February sweep, Judge Judy (eight week high 7.6 live plus same day national Nielsen, up 4% from the week before) towered over the ratings for all programs and dominated the entire syndication field of well over 100 shows for a milestone six straight months.

The last time a strip finished ahead of the long-running hit court show in the weekly household ratings was in July 2018.

Meanwhile four of the top five talk shows were also in the plus column for the frame. Dr. Phil (10-week high 3.1, up 7%) led the chat pack for the 125^th frame in a row. Live with Kelly and Ryan (new season high 2.4, up 4%) tied Ellen DeGeneres (2.4, up 4%), and Steve Harvey’s Steve (1.4, up 8%) matched its season high and has now grown 27% over the past three weeks.

On the magazine rack the week’s rising rating stars were Access (1.4, up 8%) which equaled its season high and leapfrogged over TMZ (1.3, unchanged), and Extra (10-week high 1.2, up 9%) which also matched its best rating of the season while rallying 20% in the coveted W25-54 age group.

In addition Wheel of Fortune (new season high 6.9, up 3%) outplayed the game shows for a third consecutive round, while the off-net Dateline strip (9-week high 1.4, steady) shot up 17% among W25-54 and collared first-place in the true crime category for the 20^th week in a row.