'Forget' has memorable week in syndie ratings
'Springer' widens lead over 'Oprah'
The 1.6 rating represents a 33% increase over the 1.2 rating "Forgive" managed in its premiere week, causing the show to stand out in the weekly syndicated rankings from Nielsen released Wednesday.
"Forgive" is one of three rookie talkshows that jumped the gun on their rivals by starting off in the summer. One of the three, Twentieth's "The Magic Hour" hosted by Magic Johnson, got its cancellation notice last week. The third summer rookie, Paramount TV's "Howie Mandel Show," showed a slight uptick last week from a 1.4 to a 1.5 rating, but that's still below the 1.7 rating Mandel premiered with six weeks ago.
Among the veteran talkshows, Studios USA's "Jerry Springer Show," the highest-rated syndicated talker for the past 24 consecutive weeks, chalked up a 7.5 rating last week, its best showing since the week of May 11. "Springer" could also boast about widening its lead over the second-place talkshow, King World's "Oprah," which stayed flat week to week at a 6.1 rating. The 1.4-rating margin between "Springer" and "Oprah" last week was the widest since the week of April 19.
Warner Bros. Domestic's "Jenny Jones" and Studios USA's "Sally Jessy Raphael" each climbed 2% from last week to a 4.2 rating, good for a third-place tie among talkshows.
Other talkers
For the rest of the talkshow field, Paramount's fifth-place "Montel Williams Show" was up 3% to a 3.9 rating, Columbia TriStar's sixth-place "Ricki Lake" shot up 9% to a 3.8 and Warner Bros.' "Rosie O'Donnell Show" fell 3% to a 3.5, tying for seventh with Buena Vista TV's "Live With Regis & Kathie Lee," which was up 3%. Paramount's "Maury Povich" show was ninth, up 7% to a 2.9 rating.
Worldvision's "Judge Judy" continued strong with a 5.1 rating. But when the double runs of "Judge Judy" are taken into account, the show's 6.9 GAA (gross average audience) rating last week tied its best GAA rating ever.
Twentieth TV's "The X-Files" wound up with a 5.1 rating, finishing No. 1 among weekly syndicated series for the 42nd consecutive week.
The 4.8 rating for Paramount's "Entertainment Tonight" kept it the highest-rated magazine show for the 107th straight week, although it finished only one rating point ahead of Warner Bros.' "Extra" (3.8). A year ago at this time, "ET" held a 1.6-rating-point advantage over "Extra."
