'Dr. Phil' Scores With Stiviano Interview

CBS Television Distribution’s Dr. Phil on Wednesday scored a 3.3 rating/9 share household average in 56 metered markets, according to Nielsen Media Research, with its interview with V. Stiviano, the woman to whom Los Angeles Clippers’ owner Donald Sterling was speaking when he was recorded making racist remarks.

That number was up 73% from the show’s average lead-in, and up 22% from its May 2013 sweep average. Dr. Phil’s best performance came in Indianapolis, where it clocked an 8.0/18 at 4 p.m. on Dispatch’s NBC affiliate WTHR, doubling its Ellen lead-in and growing 33% from its year-ago time period average.

Phil’s best metered market overall on Wednesday was Dayton, Ohio, where the show scored an 11.5/31 at 10 a.m. on WHIO, up 40% from its Live With Kelly & Michael lead-in and up 19% from last year at this time.

In Los Angeles, where the Sterling scandal originated, Dr. Phil's Stiviano interview was tops in its time period on KCBS at 3 p.m. with more than double the rating of its nearest competitor. The Dr. Phil interview earned a 3.3/10 in L.A., up 200% from its lead-in and 83% higher than the show's year-ago performance.

Paige Albiniak

Contributing editor Paige Albiniak has been covering the business of television for more than 25 years. She is a longtime contributor to Next TV, Broadcasting + Cable and Multichannel News. She concurrently serves as editorial director for The Global Entertainment Marketing Academy of Arts & Sciences (G.E.M.A.). She has written for such publications as TVNewsCheck, The New York Post, Variety, CBS Watch and more. Albiniak was B+C’s Los Angeles bureau chief from September 2002 to 2004, and an associate editor covering Congress and lobbying for the magazine in Washington, D.C., from January 1997 - September 2002.