Syndication Ratings: Top Five Talk Vets See Ratings Rise

Talk shows were hot in the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday
week ending Jan. 24, with all of the top five gab-fest veterans up from the
week before.  CBS Television
Distribution's (CTD) Oprah held on to
the lead with a 4% rise to 4.8. 
Meanwhile, CTD's Judge Judy
was the highest-rated first-run daytime show for a ninth straight week, ranking
fourth among all syndicated shows with a 4.9 AA rating and first with a 7.6 GAA
rating.  Week-to-week Judy dipped
2%. 

Back in the talk shows, CTD's Dr. Phil jumped 7% to 3.1. 
Disney/ABC's Live With Regis and
Kelly
gained 4% to 2.8.  Warner
Bros.' Ellen Degeneres jumped 4% to
2.5.  NBCU's Maury leaped 11% to 2.1. 
CTD's The Doctors dipped 5% to
1.9.  CTD's Rachael Ray, NBCU's Jerry
Springer
and NBCU's Steve Wilkos
all held steady at 1.8, 1.3 and 1.2, respectively.  Warner Bros.' Bonnie Hunt sank 10% to 0.9. 
NBCU's Martha Stewart surged
17% to 0.7. 

CTD's Judge Joe Brown
was the no. 2 courtroom after Judge Judy,
slipping 4% to 2.3.  Warner Bros.' People's Court was up 5% to 2.2. Warner Bros.' Judge Mathis was flat at 1.8. 
Twentieth's Judge Alex gained
7% to 1.6.  Twentieth's Divorce
Court
stumbled 7% down to 1.4.  Warner Bros.' Judge Jeanine Pirro logged a 1.1 for the fifth week in a row.

Among rookies, NBCU's The
Office
was no. 1, gaining 3% to 3.1. 
Other off-net newcomers included CTD's Everybody Hates Chris, which rose 5% to 2.0 and Twentieth's My Name Is Earl, which lost 5% to
1.8.  Sony's Dr. Oz remained flat at 2.9 in the emerald city but still led the
new entries in first-run syndication. 
Twentieth's Are You Smarter Than a
Fifth Grader
rose 6% to 1.7. 
Debmar-Mercury's Wendy Williams
and Litton's Street Court were
unchanged at 1.2 and 0.6, respectively. 

CTD's Entertainment
Tonight
was up 4% to 4.7, after seeing its ratings jump 13% to a 5.1 for
next-day coverage of the Golden Globe Awards on Jan. 18.  ET Weekend,
which also led with coverage of the Globes, saw a 14% increase to 2.4.  CTD's Inside
Edition
tacked on 6% to 3.3.  NBCU's Access Hollywood grew 5% to 2.2.  Warner Bros.' TMZ dropped 9% to 2.1. 
Warner Bros.' Extra got a 12%
ratings bump to 1.9.  CTD's The Insider slipped 6% to 1.7.

Game shows were mostly higher from the week before.  CTD's Wheel
of Fortune
rolled up a 7% gain to 7.5. 
CTD's Jeopardy inched ahead 2%
to 6.4.  Disney/ABC's Who Wants To Be a Millionaire got an 8%
ratings dividend to 2.7.  Debmar-Mercury's Family Feud was up 7% to 1.5. 
NBCU's Deal Or No Deal was
flat at 1.2. 

Off-net sitcoms were narrowly mixed.  Warner Bros.' Two and a Half Men edged up 2% to 5.5.  Twentieth's Family Guy was unchanged at 3.5. 
Warner Bros.' George Lopez was
up 4% to 2.9.  Sony's Seinfeld stayed at a 2.8 and was tied
with CTD's Everybody Loves Raymond,
which rallied 4%.  Twentieth's King of the Hill was flat at 2.3 and was
tied by Warner Bros.' Friends, which
improved 5%.  Sony's King of Queens and Frasier
each fell 6% to 1.7 and 1.5, respectively. 
House of Payne was unchanged
at 1.5.