Debmar–Mercury's Jeremy Kyle has been renewed for next year, with both the Fox and Sinclair station groups signing on, according to Debmar–Mercury co-presidents Mort Marcus and Ira Bernstein.
With those groups on board, the show is now renewed in more than 50% of the country, including the Fox stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Washington, D.C., and Houston. Jeremy Kyle joins Warner Bros.' Anderson as this season's second rookie first-run show to earn a renewal for next year.
While Jeremy Kyle is only averaging a 0.5 live plus same day national household ratings average, according to Nielsen, both the Fox and Sinclair groups have been clear that they like the show creatively and have been pushing to bring it back. Jeremy Kyle is being sold internationally by ITV Studios Global Entertainment, and those sales are helping to support the show economically across the board. ITV's U.S. division, ITV Studios America, produces Jeremy Kyle. Kyle also hosts the top daytime talk show in the U.K., where the show is now in its sixth season.
"At the end of day, Jeremy is an enormous British talent that's going to take a while to catch on here," says Bernstein. "His popularity in the U.K. is what allows us to sell the U.S. episodes in the UK and other English-speaking territories around the world. That generates enough money that it mitigates our risk."
With fragmented dayparts now the norm, TV station groups are increasingly interested in acquiring programs they believe in and letting them grow into profitable franchises. That's also somewhat the case with Anderson, another show that many station programmers say is creatively strong but needs time so that audiences can find it.
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