‘Dr. Phil’ And ‘Live’ Tie For Top Talker

With many shows preempted for widespread coverage of the birth of Britain’s Prince George on July 22, most of syndication stalled in the mid-summer week ending July 28.

Nevertheless, the majority of strips held on to their solid gains of the previous week and several managed to outperform their year-ago scores by wide margins.

Dr. Phil and Live with Kelly and Michael topped the talkers. Phil, which was in repeats on four of the five days, grew 4% from last year, while Live improved 9% from last year.

Dr. Oz moved up to third, even though it was mostly in reruns.

Ellen and Wendy Williams had the biggest year-to-year increases. Ellen surged 27% with an all-repeat week, while Wendy went up 75% with an almost all-original week of shows.

Steve Wilkos tied Wendy for the largest week-to-week improvement.

Access Hollywood was the only veteran magazine to show growth from the prior week, although newcomer Dish Nation also advanced.

Meanwhile, Warner Bros.’ The Real and Twentieth Television’s Kris syndicated talkers, which both began July 15, finished their third full week of their summer test runs on several Fox stations. The Real was up sharply from both its first week and year-ago time periods. Kris was unchanged from its opening week, but doing much better than its August 2012 time period averages.

Among women 25-54, The Real (1.2/8 for week three) jumped 50% from its first week and 200% from its year-ago time period average, while Kris (0.8/5) was unchanged from its first week, rose 33% from week two and shot up 60% compared to its August 2012 time periods. (It also hit a new high in the demo in top market New York with a 1.3, a 63% gain over the previous week.)

Among women 18-49, the week three average for The Real (1.0/7) increased 43% from week one and 233% from last year’s time period, while the week three average for Kris (0.6/4) was unchanged from week one, but climbed 50% from its year ago time period average.

The week’s top nationally rated talk shows in the women 25-54 demo were:

• Dr. Phil (1.5, down 6% from the week before), tied with Live with Kelly and Michael (1.5, +7%)
• Ellen (1.3, unchanged)
• Maury (1.2, -14%), tied with Dr. Oz (1.2, +9%)
• Wendy Williams (1.1, +10%)
• Katie (0.8, unchanged), tied with Steve Wilkos (0.8, unchanged) and Rachael Ray (0.8, +14%

In the household rating rankings that follow, * indicates a new season high rating; ** indicates a new season low; % change is from the previous week; NC indicates no change from the previous week.

TALK SHOWS

1. Dr. Phil (CTD) 2.5 -7%

1. Live with Kelly and Michael (Disney-ABC) 2.5 +4%

3. Dr. Oz (Sony) 2.1 NC

4. Maury (NBCU) 2.0 -9%

5. Ellen (WBDTD) 1.9 NC

6. Katie (Disney-ABC) 1.6 -6%

7. Wendy Williams (Debmar-Mercury) 1.4 +8%

8. Rachael Ray (CTD) 1.3 NC

8. Jerry Springer (NBCU) 1.3 NC

8. Steve Wilkos (NBCU) 1.3 +8%

11. Steve Harvey (NBCU) 1.2 -8%

11. The Doctors (CTD) 1.2 NC

13. Trisha (NBCU) 0.5 NC

14. The Better Show (Meredith) 0.2 NC

FRESHMEN TALKERS

1. Katie (Disney-ABC) 1.6 -6%

2. Steve Harvey (NBCU) 1.2 -8%

3. Trisha (NBCU) 0.5 NC

COURT SHOWS

1. Judge Judy (CTD) 6.0 -6%

2. People’s Court (WBDTD) 1.5** -6%

3. Judge Mathis (WBDTD) 1.3 NC

4. Divorce Court (Twentieth) 1.1 NC

5. Judge Alex (Twentieth) 1.0** -9%

6. America’s Court with Judge Ross (Entertainment Studios) 0.6 -14%

7. Justice for All with Judge Cristina Perez (Entertainment Studios) 0.5 +25%

8. We the People with Gloria Allred (Entertainment Studios) 0.2 NC

MAGAZINE SHOWS

1. Entertainment Tonight (CTD) 3.3 NC

2. Inside Edition (CTD) 2.7 NC

3. TMZ (WBDTD) 1.8 -5%

4. Access Hollywood (NBCU) 1.6 +7%

5. Extra (WBDTD) 1.3 NC

5. OMG Insider (CTD) 1.3 NC

7. Dish Nation (Twentieth) 1.0 +11%

GAME SHOWS

1. Wheel of Fortune (CTD) 6.0 NC

2. Jeopardy (CTD) 5.6 -5%

3. Family Feud (Debmar-Mercury) 4.5 +5%

4. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (Disney-ABC) 2.5 +9%

5. Baggage (GSN) 1.0 NC

OFF-NET SITCOMS

1. Big Bang Theory (WBDTD) 6.4 +2%

2. Two and a Half Men (WBDTD) 4.2 -2%

3. Family Guy (Twentieth) 3.5 +6%

4. How I Met Your Mother (Twentieth) 2.4 NC

4. King of the Hill (Twentieth) 2.4 +9%

6. Friends (WBDTD) 2.2 NC

6. Seinfeld (Sony) 2.2 NC

8. Everybody Loves Raymond (CTD) 1.8 NC

OFF-NET WEEKLY HOURS

1. Law & Order: SVU (NBCU) 3.8 +36%

2. Law & Order (NBCU) 2.8 -3%

3. Castle (Disney-ABC) 2.4 +4%

4. Criminal Minds (CTD) 2.3 +5%

5. CSI: Miami (CTD) 2.0 -9%