Top tier talkers take off in first full week of November sweep

Review based on a national syndicated rating report for the week ending November 5.

The first full week of the traditional November survey period – the frame ending November 4 – was a strong one for the three shows in talk’s top tier.

Syndication’s number one talker Dr. Phil (3.0 live plus same day national Nielsen, up 3% from the week before) raced to its highest rating since the week ending September 23 and convincingly led the genre for the 113^th straight session with over 4-million daily viewers.

Live with Kelly and Ryan (new season high 2.3, up 5%) was buoyed by a 25% Wednesday to Wednesday surge to a 2.5 for its annual Halloween special and seized sole possession of second place in talk for the sixth stanza in a row with its best rating since the week ending March 25.

Ellen DeGeneres (2.1, up 5%) joined the upward movement party with a six-week high, which was good enough for third place in the category.

Among the newcomers, Face The Truth (0.8) rose 25% in the coveted women 25-54 age group in its eighth week on the air.

Courtroom superstar Judge Judy (7.3) grew 6% from last year and easily outperformed every first-run and off-net syndicated show for the 14^th straight week.

Turning to access time periods, the survey said Family Feud (new season high 6.4, up 5%) was the game show leader.

Magazines were topped by Entertainment Tonight (2.9, down 6%) and Inside Edition (2.9, down 3%).  Access (1.2, steady) and TMZ (1.2, up 20%) battled to a third place tie.  Also making a big move and worthy of note was Page Six TV (0.7, up 17%), which equaled its highest rating of the season and shot up 33% in the closely-watched W25-54 demo.