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Dr. Phil surged back to the top spot among syndicated talk shows for the week ending with March 31 according to the latest national ratings.
Top rated for most of the season, Dr. Phil slipped into second place behind Live With Kelly & Michael last week due in large part to pre-emptions from the NCAA basketball tournament on CBS affiliated stations. While March Madness continued, it didn’t impact Dr. Phil for the last week of the month — nor did only airing three original episodes out of five.
Dr. Phil had a 2.8 household rating (about 3.7 million viewers a day), which was up 17 percent from the prior week, and 4 percent compared to the same week a year earlier. Dr. Phil’s rating among the key demographic group of women 25-54 was also up nicely to a 1.6 from a 1.3.
Live With Kelly & Michael, with original shows, did just fine as well, holding steady at a 2.5 rating (3.3 million viewers a day) and a 1.5 rating among women 25-54.
Considering all the disruptive factors — Passover and Good Friday included — some other talk shows also managed to see increases for the week in total households. Those included Ellen DeGeneres (up 11 percent), The Doctors (up 8 percent) and Wendy Williams (up 8 percent).
For the first time the robust Steve Harvey attracted more total viewers than Katie, even though Katie had a higher household rating. The difference is that more people over the age of 2 were watching Steve Harvey in fewer households than Katie for the week.
Katie, which was in reruns most of the week, had a 1.6 household rating (about 2.05 million viewers a day), even with the prior week. Steve Harvey, airing mostly original shows, had a 1.5 rating (an average of 2.1 million viewers a day), up 7 percent from the prior week. Harvey also bested Katie once again in the key demo (women 25-54) with a 0.9 compared to a 0.8 for Katie.
Katie, meanwhile, on Monday (April 8) had a very big day with a Mary Tyler Moore reunion show, which included Valerie Harper, who has candidly talked about her medical condition in recent weeks. In metered markets, that show was up 38 percent from the program on the same day a week earlier to a 2.2 rating and 7 percent share of the viewing audience. That equaled Katie’s highest share of the audience since its premiere.
In other highlights, Judge Judy was up 3 percent from the prior week to a 6.8 household rating, up 1 percent. She had the only court show to show improvement over the week before.
Judge Joe Brown, in the wake of news his show will end after this season (which was announced that week) saw a 8 percent dip in his audience with a 2.2 household rating.
Access Hollywood was the only entertainment magazine show to record higher numbers for the week, with a 1.8 household rating, up 6 percent.
Extra Weekend had a 0.7 household rating, up 17 percent, even though it was disrupted in many markets by March Madness.
The phenomena of the Big Bang Theory in off-network airings continued as it was the top show in all of syndication, with a 7.4 household rating (an average of about 11.7 million viewers a day). It was also tops the demographic ratings for men, women and adults 18-49.
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