SYNDIE RATINGS: Osmond Clan Gives Oprah a Season High

By Paige Albiniak
( Broadcasting & Cable )
published

CBS’ The Oprah Winfrey Show last Friday -- featuring all 100-plus members of the Osmond family -- turned in its highest ratings yet to date this season, hitting a 7.8 rating/19 share primary-run average in the weighted metered markets, according to Nielsen Media Research.

That marks Oprah’s best performance since last January, when Winfrey interviewed the family of child kidnap victim Shawn Hornbeck.

In Salt Lake City, the Osmonds’ home town, the show scored its best ratings in more than four years. The last time as many people in the Utah capital tuned in, Winfrey was interviewing another famous child kidnap victim: Elizabeth Smart.

Paige Albiniak
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.