'ET' big in syndie ratings

No. 2 ranking "Inside Edition" dropped 5%

By ADDIE MORFOOT

"Entertainment Tonight" kicked off sweeps, which began Feb. 2, with a bang. The week ending Feb. 5 marked the talker's 500th consecutive week as the No. 1 magazine show in syndica-tion.

"ET" and its spinoff skein "The Insider" were the only two mags to improve week to week.

At a 5.4, "ET" was up 2% week to week and year to year.

No. 2 ranking "Inside Edition" dropped to a 3.6 down 5% for the week and year.

"The Insider" and "Access Holly-wood" both averaged a 2.8. While "The Insider" was up 4% week to week and up 8% from last year, "Access" went unchanged for the week and was up 4% year to year.

In fifth place "Extra" drew a 2.4, unchanged from week prior but up 9% from last year.

Elsewhere in access time periods was "Who Wants to be a Millionaire," at a 3.5, the only gameshow to start the sweep with a weekly increase at 6%.

Top gameshow "Wheel of For-tune," was down 3% to a 9.1, while "Jeopardy" in second place was down 1% to a 7.4.

Compared with last year "Wheel" was down 7%, "Jeopardy" was down 6% and "Millionaire" was down 3%.

Among the off net sitcoms "Every-body Loves Raymond" was up 2% to a 6.7 but down 11% year to year. "Sein-feld" went unchanged at a 6.0 but was down 5% from last year while "Friends" was up 4% week to week to a 5.3 but down 9% year to year.

Court shows ratings continued to be soft. "Judge Judy" was flat at a 5.1 and down 2% from last year while "Judge Joe Brown" was down 6% to a 3.2, dropping 14% year to year. "People's Court" was down 3% to a 2.9 although up 12% from last year. "Divorce Court" came in at a 2.6, down 7% week to week and year to year. "Judge Mathis" fell 8% to a 2.4, slipping 4% year to year. Rookie gaveler "Judge Alex" was down 4% to a 2.2.

Among the talkshows, "Oprah" was up 4% to a 7.6 but still down 1% from last year. "Dr. Phil" averaged a 5.5 up 4% for the week but was flat year to year. "Live with Regis and Kelly" held steady at a 3.4 and eased 6% from last year. "Maury was up 3% to a 3.0 but down 3% from last year. "The Ellen Degeneres Show," with a 2.6, up 4% for the week and up 8% from last year, the biggest year to year improvement of any talker.

Rookie talkers "The Martha Stew-art Show" and "The Tyra Banks Show" were each down, 6% to a 1.7 and 1.5 respectively. Although in the key female demos "Tyra" topped "Martha" across the board.