On May 26, 1:59 pm, PGage <[email protected]> wrote: > On Thu, May 26, 2011 at 10:10 AM, Mark J. <[email protected]> wrote: > > No big surprise, to be sure, but the episode of her show yesterday's > > finale beat in the overnights (not counting St. Louis, which pre- > > empted the farewell for severe weather coverage and will air the show > > today) for all-time most-watched episode was a 1994 item from > > presumably her pre-renouncement of tabloid topics days called "People > > Shed Their Disguises," with guests who wear fake beards or too much > > makeup and want to be made over: > > >http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/05/26/oprah-winfrey-finale-rating/ > > > They're estimating final national numbers of over 15M, a number not > > seen in daytime regularly since the days of 36-channel cable systems, > > Luke and Laura and Donahue. > > The Oprah finale is making barely a blip on my own personal radar - but this > report seems surprisingly low. It seems like her finals show would be the > most watched episode, and not be beaten by one of her early tabloid > episodes, even if there were fewer options in those days. Shouldn't everyone > who was ever touched by Oprah's magic have wanted to come by and say > good-bye? > > This does remind me that the one question I have been interested in is just > when did Oprah become the queen of the day time talk show? I remember the > period when Donahue was King (I used to watch his show fairly often when I > was young) and vaguely hearing about this Oprah person, and then I remember > that Oprah was one of the three or four talk shows - with Donahue hanging > on, Ricky Lake (subject of one of Letterman's best running jokes) Springer > etc. During this period I occaionally checked out Oprah, never really liked > her, but did not start hating her until her transition. But at some point > the talk show landscape seemed to become Oprah at the apex and a bunch of > also-rans competing for second place. Was that before or after her > renounciation of tabloid in favor of the pop-psych and feel-good? Was her > domination a result of her decision to take the so-called high road, or were > the other competitors already dying out for various reasons?
Sorry if it wasn't clear, but yesterday's finale was her highest-rated show in overnight ratings *since* the 1994 episode mentioned. I know Wikipedia can't always be trusted, but it says (and I would tend to agree) that Oprah pretty much took the top ratings spot in daytime talk shows immediately and never really gave it up. I believe that Springer beat her, at least in younger demos, during the height of his notoriety, but she regained the lead. However, her total audience, like almost all daytime TV, has gone down in recent years, but while the right claimed it was because of her support of President Obama, all daytime shows have smaller total audiences these days. Meanwhile, recently in total syndication ratings Oprah and her King World/CBS Distribution stablemates "Wheel of Fortune" and "Jeopardy!" have met their match in the form of Charlie Sheen and "2.5 Men" reruns. That series has been in the top 10 of syndicated shows (and often the top 5) consistently since its syndication release, but ever since Sheen got fired from the show and started his media antics, the ratings have gone up higher and it knocked "Wheel" out of the top spot for the first time in that show's syndication history. -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
