Syndicated ‘Bethenny’ Off To Strong Start

Warner Bros.’ new talk show Bethenny, from executive producer Ellen DeGeneres, got off to a strong start yesterday on the first day of its summer test run. It had an average 1.5 household rating, which was up 15% from its lead-in average and up 88% from the time slot average a year earlier, based on Nielsen overnight ratings.

Bethenny is airing on six Fox TV Stations: WNYW New York, KTTV Los Angeles, WTXF Philadelphia, KDFW Dallas, KSAZ Phoenix, KMSP Minneapolis. If the show does well in the six-week test, Warner Bros. intends to put it on hiatus and syndicate it nationally for fall 2013.

Among women 25-54, it averaged a 1.5 rating, a threefold increase over its time slot average a year earlier, based on Nielsen’s local people meter ratings in those six markets.

In New York, Bethenny had a 1.9/7 share at 11 a.m., up 138% over Dr. Oz reruns last year. It finished in third place behind ABC’s The View (4.3 rating/15 share) and CBS’s Price is Right (2.5/9).

In Los Angeles, it had a 0.9/3, up 29% from the time slot a year earlier. In Philadelphia, Bethenny had a 1.8/7, which was up 125%. In Minneapolis, its 1.0/5 was up 43%.

In Dallas, Bethenny ranked No. 1 in its 1 p.m. time slot with a 1.8/5.

Bethenny’s weakest showing was in Phoenix, where its 0.9/3 at 11 a.m. was down 10% from Sony’s Nate Berkus a year earlier.