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Syndication Ratings: Reality’s cup runneth over

Feb 24, 2003  •  Post A Comment

Reflected glory from popular reality shows spilled over to syndicated newsmagazines that covered the “American Idol,” “Joe Millionaire” and “The Bachelorette” craze, resulting in a ratings surge for the week ending Feb. 9.
According to Nielsen Media Research, four of the five newsmagazines hit or matched season highs, while most other syndicated fare showed little movement.
Enjoying a second consecutive week of growth, newsmagazines continued to move upward bolstered by “behind-the-scenes” looks at the red-hot reality series populating network sweeps. Paramount’s “Entertainment Tonight” stayed at the head of the pack with a 10 percent jump to a 6.9 rating, setting a season high and improving on last year’s numbers by 8 percent.
King World’s “Inside Edition” also set high marks for the season, rising 3 percent for the week to a 3.8. That score is up 15 percent over 2002 numbers.
Warner Bros.’ “Extra” matched its best outing of the season, growing 7 percent to a 3.0, up 3 percent in year-to-year numbers.
NBC’s “Access Hollywood” was the only newsmagazine strip that failed to hit a season best. But the series still managed a 7 percent week-to-week leap to a 2.9 rating.
Rookie strip “Celebrity Justice” matched its season high with an 8 percent spurt to a 1.4.
Elsewhere, the only court show to improve week to week was Telepictures’ “Judge Mathis” rising 5 percent to a season high of 2.2. Genre leader “Judge Judy” was down 2 percent for distributor Paramount, marking erosion of 13 percent year to year. “Judge Joe Brown” was unchanged with a 3.6.
As for talk shows, only four of the top 14 strips posted increases for the week. The rich got richer as King World’s tandem of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and “Dr. Phil” both improved over the previous week. “Oprah” was up 2 percent to a 5.9 and “Dr. Phil” climbed 4 percent to a 5.4.
Buena Vista’s “Live With Regis and Kelly” was up 5 percent to a 3.9. Warner Bros. rookie “Caroline Rhea” rose 11 percent to a 1.0.