Entertainment Magazine Shows Score Season-High Ratings

The death of Dallas star Larry Hagman and the legal problems and nightclub fight involving Lindsay Lohan brought viewers to entertainment magazine shows, helping all seven score their best ratings of the season, or at least show strong increases, according to national ratings for the week ending Dec. 2, released Tuesday.

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Entertainment Tonight, which regularly rates highest among entertainment magazines, achieved a new season high with a 4.1 household rating, up a smart 21 percent from the week before and up 5 percent from the same week last year.

Inside Edition also hit a season high with a 3.2 rating, up 14 percent from the previous week.

Access Hollywood had a season high with a 1.9 rating, up 19 percent from the week before.

TMZ matched its season high with a 1.9 rating, up 19 percent from the previous week.

Extra equaled its season high with a 1.6 rating, up 7 percent from the previous week. Its companion show Extra Weekend also was at a season high with a 1.0 rating, up 11 percent.

E.T.’s companion show The Insider, which gets a makeover in January, also equaled its best numbers for the season to date, with a 1.6 rating, up 14 percent from the previous week.

Fox’s freshman show Dish Nation also hit a new ratings high with a 1.0 rating, up 25 percent from the week before. That also was up 25 percent from its premiere-week performance. Dish, which features radio DJs discussing pop-culture news, also hit new highs in all the major demographic groups and continues to have a younger audience than most other shows.

Among the freshman talk shows, it was an interesting test week for Katie. This was the first week in which the show was in repeats. It still was tops among the first-year talkers, with a 1.7 rating, but that was down 6 percent from the previous week.

Steve Harvey, meanwhile, had his highest rating ever with a 1.5, up 15 percent from the previous week. Jeff Probst's talk show was also up 14 percent, to a 0.8 rating.

As it has been all season, the top talker again was Dr. Phil, which had a 3.1 rating, down 6 percent from the week earlier.

Ellen, having a banner season, tied in the ratings for second place among talk shows with the resurgent LIVE With Kelly & Michael, both with a 2.6 rating.

Maury and Dr. Oz  also were up, each with a 2.4 rating, and each up 4 percent from the previous week.