As the top entertainment magazines prepare to retool their formats, all three of them also managed to improve in the week ended Aug. 25, which was also officially the final week of the TV season.
Levels of people using television (PUT) slipped to some of the year’s lowest, and access shows also ran into preemptions for preseason NFL football on Aug. 22 and a pet adoption special hosted by Kelly Clarkson on NBC on Aug. 23.
CBS Television Distribution’s Entertainment Tonight, which recently parted ways with host Nancy O’Dell; NBCUniversal’s Access, soon to return to its former name of Access Hollywood; and Warner Bros.’ Extra morphing into ExtraExtra, all are being infused with new anchors and content upgrades in the coming weeks.
Related: Nancy O'Dell Departing 'Entertainment Tonight'
For the week, CTD’s Inside Edition remained ahead of the pack at a steady 2.5 followed by sibling series ET, which climbed 4% to a three-week high 2.4 live pus same day national rating according to Nielsen Media Research. Access grew 10% for the week and the year to a 1.1, tying Warner Bros.’ unchanged TMZ. Extra elevated 11% to a nine-week high 1.0. Meanwhile, DailyMailTV delivered a steady 0.9, up 13% from the same week last year.
Twentieth’s Page Six TV, which was bumped in more than a dozen large markets by football and other programming and is nearly done with its run, slipped 20% to a new series-low 0.4. Trifecta’s Celebrity Page turned to a 0.2 for the eighth straight week.
The top court shows also received favorable verdicts with CTD’s full-season syndication leader, Judge Judy, in repeats all week, climbing 3% to a four-week high 6.1 to lead all syndicated shows for the sixth time in seven weeks.
Related: 'Judge Judy' Closes Out 10th Season Win in 10 Years
CTD’s Hot Bench, in repeats on three of the five days, gained 5% to a 2.1 and was the second-highest rated show in daytime after only Judy and just ahead of CTD’s talk leader Dr. Phil, which aired another week of encore episodes.
Warner Bros.’ People’s Court and Judge Mathis and Twentieth’s Divorce Court all were flat at a 1.3, 0.9 and 0.7, respectively. Debmar-Mercury’s freshman Caught in Providence settled for a 0.5 for the 10th straight week.
Dr. Phil held steady at a 2.0 with its week of reruns and led the talkers for the 155th straight week with five ties. Among women 25-54, Phil tied with Disney’s Live with Kelly and Ryan for first place in daytime’s key demo at a 0.8.
Back in households, Live was on hiatus and aired a week of mostly repacked episodes, dipping to a new season-low 1.8 but managed to stay in second place in the genre for the 26th consecutive week.
Warner Bros.’ Ellen DeGeneres stayed at a 1.4. NBCU’s Maury moved up 8% to a 1.3. NBCU’s Steve Wilkos and CTD’s Rachael Ray remained at a 1.0, tying NBCU’s soon-to-end Steve, which added 11%.
Debmar-Mercury’s Wendy Williams at a steady 0.9 was a blended number, including the second week of Jerry O’Connell’s three-week test run of Jerry O, which was seen on all of the Fox owned stations in Wendy time periods.
Related: 'Jerry O' Hopes to Bring Stations Its Brand of Funny
Sony Pictures Television’s Dr. Oz was stable at a 0.9 tying the Wendy-Jerry O combo. CTD’s Face the Truth, nearing the end of its run, stayed at a 0.6 for the fourth straight week.
Warner Bros.’ The Real rebounded 25% to a 0.5. CTD’s The Doctors flatlined at its series-low 0.4 for the fourth straight week, tying the out-of-production syndicated run of NBCU’s JerrySpringer, which was unchanged. Disney’s Pickler & Ben stayed at a 0.3 for a seventh straight week as it came close to its conclusion.
Debmar-Mercury’s Family Feud forged ahead 3% to a 6.0, setting the game pace for the 11th straight week. CTD’s Wheel of Fortune was on par with the prior week’s 4.9. CTD’s Jeopardy!, whose host Alex Trebek just completed chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer and announced he’s back at work taping new episodes for the new season, inched up 2% to a 4.8.
Disney’s Who Wants to be a Millionaire, which is about to fold its hand, played to an even 1.4. Entertainment Studios’ Funny You Should Ask held at a 0.5 for the 24th week in a row.
Disney’s viral video show RightThisMinute was a consistent 1.2 for a fourth consecutive week.
NBCU’s off-network Dateline led the true-crime genre even though it dropped 8% to a 1.1. SPT’s off-A&E Live PD Police Patrol was close on Dateline’s heels with a steady 1.0. Off-Investigation Discovery’s True Crime Files featured an unchanged 0.3.
NBCU’s off-net scripted procedural Chicago PD gained 13% to a 0.9.
Warner Bros.’ The Big Bang Theory added 3% to a 3.8. Twentieth’s Last Man Standing and Modern Family each held steady at a 2.1 and 1.6, respectively. Warner Bros.’ Two and a Half Men maintained a 1.3 for a seventh straight week, tying SPT’s The Goldbergs, which grew 8% to a 1.3. Twentieth’s Family Guy gave back 14% to a 1.2. SPT’s Seinfeld, Disney’s rookie Black-ish and Warner Bros.’ Mike & Molly all were unchanged at a 1.0, while Warner Bros.’ 2 Broke Girls remained at a 0.9.
