Top courts climb despite generally tepid week

Review based on a national syndicated rating report for the week ending October 14.

Courtrooms were syndication’s hottest shows in the otherwise lukewarm frame ending October 14 with three of the top four strips jumping from the prior session.

By far the supreme court – with more than 9.6-million daily viewers – was overall leader Judge Judy (6.8 live plus same day national Nielsen, up 1% from the week before), which swelled 3% from last year and easily out-rated everything in syndication for the 11^th week in a row.

Finishing behind only ‘Judy’ in the genre was Hot Bench (new season high 2.3, up 5%), which clocked its strongest numbers in 22 weeks and hit the chart as daytime’s third biggest strip in the household ratings.

Further down the docket People’s Court (1.4, unchanged) went sideways, however Judge Mathis (1.0, up 11%) got a favorable ratings ruling.

The big news in access was a big comeback for Family Feud (new season high 6.2, up 5%), which regained sole possession of first place in the game show race after being beaten or tied in the two previous contests.

Wheel of Fortune (5.9, unchanged) and Jeopardy (5.9, unchanged) were next in line.

Turning to the talkers Dr. Phil (2.8, steady) continued to dominate the category for the 110^th week in a row.

Live with Kelly and Ryan (2.1, down 5%) grabbed second place among the gabfests, while Ellen DeGeneres (2.0, unchanged) was third.

Elsewhere Dateline (new season high 1.4, up 17%) booked an even wider lead over the off-net and off-cable true crime field. Live PD: Police Patrol (0.9, unchanged) and True Crime Files (0.3, unchanged) followed.

Among the scripted police strips, off-net newcomer Chicago P.D. (0.5 demo rating) collared a 25% increase among W25-54. Another sharp demo increase was recorded by Page Six TV (up 60% in three days to a Wednesday record 0.8/3 W25-54 rating October 17 on WNYW at 7pm) after a strong promotional push in top market New York.

Face The Truth (0.7, steady) was the season’s highest rated new show in first-run for the fifth consecutive week.