“Live with Kelly and Ryan” kicks off new season with 27% surge

Review based on a national syndicated rating report for the week ending September 13, 2020.

Live with Kelly and Ryan (six-week high 1.9 live plus same day national Nielsen rating, up 27% from the week before) unveiled season 33 of its wildly popular franchise and jumped into a first-place tie with usual talk leader Dr. Phil (1.9, steady) in the holiday week session ending September 13.

“Live” made the big move despite being preempted in home market New York for memorials on September 11. Ratings for the new season of “Phil” will come out next week.

Maury (1.0, unchanged) was far behind in third place. Steve Wilkos (0.9, unchanged) followed.

Ellen DeGeneres (0.9, unchanged), tied “Wilkos” but stayed at the lowest rating in the show’s 17-year history for a fifth straight week and was down 53% from the same week last year. National ratings for Ellen’s new season, which did not get underway until September 21, will not be released for another two weeks.

The newest strip in first-run syndication was highly anticipated talker The Drew Barrymore Show (premiere week primary run 0.8/3 weighted metered market average), which immediately improved time slots significantly on its CBS O&O launch group. For example, the show took those stations up 33% among women 25-54 and up 50% among adults 25-54 compared to the same week last year.

“Drew,” which did not get to air its primary run September 17 in several markets due to US Open Golf on NBC, nevertheless already finished first in its time period in a number of cities such as Buffalo (2.2/6 weekly average, up 57% from year ago). The rookie also got off to a big start in multiple markets with year to year time period increases of 100% in Los Angeles, 100% in Portland (Oregon), 150% in Baltimore, 200% in Louisville, and 200% in Jacksonville.

Back in the national live plus same day Nielsens for the session ending September 13, the highest rated daytime show remained courtroom champ Judge Judy (5.4, down 4%), which was still in reruns all week. Judy’s law partner Hot Bench (1.9, steady) was also in repeats but tied “Live” and “Phil” for second place in the daypart.