Sitcoms sink to series lows, while Dr. Phil soars to season high

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

Talk show leader Dr. Phil (new season high 2.5 live plus same day national Nielsen, up 9% from the week before) was immune to a rash of ratings declines that saw some of the biggest off-net sitcoms plunge to all-time lows in the session ending October 27. “Phil” led the talkers for the 164^th consecutive week with its best numbers since the frame ending May 26.

Nine-year veteran laffer Big Bang Theory (new series low 2.7, down 13%), Last Man Standing (1.9, down 5%) and the seven-year-old Modern Family (new series low 1.4, down 7%) all gave way in the week. Access shows in general were probably negatively affected by World Series games October 22, 23 and 25.

But most of first-run syndication held up well, although some daytime shows were preempted for fire coverage in California markets.

Following “Dr. Phil” in talk were Live with Kelly & Ryan (2.0 steady), which was the second highest chat show for the 35^th week in a row, and third place Ellen DeGeneres (1.8, down 5%).

Judge Judy (three-week high 6.4, up 2%) extended its glorious run as syndication’s number one show overall in the household ratings for the 13^th straight week.

Entertainment Tonight (new season high 2.8, up 8%) tied corporate sibling Inside Edition (2.8, unchanged) for the top spot among magazines.

Among the nationally-cleared freshmen leaders The Kelly Clarkson Show (1.4, steady), which drew a crowd of more than 1.8-million daily viewers, and Tamron Hall (1.0, steady), which attracted over 1.2-million viewers each day, were both able to avoid rating declines despite preemptions in their seventh outings.

Mel Robbins (0.4, unchanged), the third new talker this season, trailed the top two with 522,000 viewers.

Jerry Springer’s Judge Jerry (0.9, steady) surged 25% in the key W25-54 demo and easily got the most favorable Nielsen verdict among the new courtrooms, outperforming Personal Injury Court (0.5, unchanged) and Protection Court (0.3, unchanged).