Psy Britney Spears on Ellen - H 2012
Michael Rozman/Warner Bros.While Katie got off to a strong start Monday, the best among the talk show newcomers, veterans Ellen and Dr. Oz returned with noteworthy season premieres.
Ellen scored a 3.0 in total households in metered markets, and its highest rating since the 2006-07 season. (Full national numbers won’t be available until next week.) That projects Ellen as taking an 8 percent share of the viewing audience, which would be her best in that measure since the show went on the air in 2003.
Warner Bros. and stations carrying Ellen DeGeneres‘ show have to be very pleased. Ellen was tops not only in households but also among women 25 to 54 (with a 2.2 rating among the key daytime audience demo), women 18 to 49 (1.7) and adults 25 to 54 (1.4).
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A year ago Ellen had a 2.4 opening-day rating in households, a 1.1 among women 18 to 49, a 1.3 among women 25 to 54 and a 0.9 among adults 25 to 54.
Dr. Oz, despite being forced into time periods an hour earlier in some markets to make way for Katie Couric‘s new show, delivered a 2.8 rating to start its fourth season. The Sony Pictures Television show improved on what was in that time period a year earlier by 33 percent.
That 2.8 rating for Oz is the same as the national household average in metered markets for Katie.
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In Los Angeles, Dallas and Nashville — the three markets where Dr. Oz is its lead-in — Katie was the winner with a 3.5 household average, and Oz had a 2.8.
In the 10 markets where Katie and Dr. Oz go head to head, Oz was on top in households with a 3.1 average to Katie’s 2.2.
That was easily the best among the new talk shows. The comparable numbers on Monday: 1.5 for Maury and Steve Harvey, 1.2 for Jerry Springer, 1 for The Jeff Probst Show and Wendy Williams 1.0 and 0.8 for The Ricki Lake Show, which was hurt because of a dispute in the New York market that kept the show off as much as 40 percent of all TV sets there.
There was also good news for the revised Anderson Cooper show now called Anderson Live. It scored a healthy 1.3 rating Monday in metered markets in total households, which was up 18 percent over a year ago.
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Steve Harvey continues to hold his own. He started last Tuesday with a 1.5, went to a 1.4 on Wednesday, a 1.3 on Thursday, a 1.6 on Friday and had a 1.5 again this Monday. Overall that means that his viewership has quickly found its level. It is up 50 percent in households (on average for five days) over a year ago in the same time periods. It is up about 100 percent in every key female demo.
Katie’s premiere rating of 2.8 in metered market households is the best launch for any syndicated talk show in ten years (since Dr. Phil in 2002). It is far above what other new talk shows have done in recent years. Last fall, Anderson was hapy to start with a 1.1 rating. While the huge start is impressive, there was some slight decline from one-quarter hour to the next so it is important to give the show at least a week or more to find its real level of viewership.
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The reigning talk show top dog, Dr. Phil, was pre-empted Monday in many markets on CBS stations by the U.S. Open, so there is no comparable data. Dr. Phil makes his season debut Tuesday with a show that features interviews with friends of George Zimmerman. Dr. Phil on Friday will have Trayvon Martin’s parents on his show.
