“Wendy Williams” Wows Without Wendy

Review based on a national syndicated rating report for the week ending November 21, 2021.

The Wendy Williams Show (0.8 live plus same day national Nielsen rating, up 14% from the week before) moved up sharply in the session ending November 21 with guest-hosts — including two days with Jerry Springer and Steve Wilkos — filling in for the eponymous Wendy.

However Wendy posed no threat to the talk show leaders.

For example, Dr. Phil (season high 1.9, steady) finished first among talkers for a third straight week with more than double Wendy’s rating.

Wendy was also outperformed by such top tier heavyweights as Live with Kelly and Ryan (1.7, steady) and Ellen DeGeneres (1.0, steady) which both lit up the chart with season high ratings.

Of note, “Phil,” “Live” and “Ellen” achieved season record numbers despite being faced with numerous network preemptions for coverage of the verdict in the Rittenhouse trial and for President Biden’s remarks on the infrastructure bill.

Also in the news was the long-running Dr. Oz (new season low 0.5, down 17%), which was in tenth place on the weekly talk show roster with an average 788,000 daily viewers. By comparison, first place Dr. Phil attracted an average crowd of 2,663,000 viewers each day.