A pitched battle is shaking up the local daytime TV standings. The syndication market is feeling the effects of a powerful new entry this season.
“Ellen” and “Dr. Phil” have a serious new competitor in “Dr. Oz” in the 3 p.m. hour locally on KMGH-Channel 7.
“Dr. Oz” is scoring impressive numbers after just a week on the air.
Mehmet Oz, former protege of Oprah Winfrey, got his own show this year, running in most major markets around the country (not head-to-head with “Oprah” in any of them, as stipulated by the contract). The cardiothoracic surgeon isn’t above dropping to the floor to do pushups in his scrubs. “I never ask my guests to exercise alone,” he says.
The styles and content of the competing shows are wildly different. Last week, while Dr. Phil was talking to overwhelmed moms and a teen who desperately wants to mother multiple kids, and while Ellen DeGeneres was dancing and giving away cash prizes, Dr. Oz was talking kidney stones, yoga and fatty foods. And taking some remarkably personal questions from audience members.
While the styles vary, the shows’ ratings are not so wildly different. They’re all within four-tenths of a ratings point: “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” on KUSA led with a 2.6 rating, “The Dr. Oz Show” on KMGH was next with a 2.3 rating, “Dr. Phil” on KCNC trailed with a 2.2 rating.
That’s good news for Channel 7, which jumped more than 20 percent above last year’s average ratings with “Jeopardy” and “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.” It’s also good news for Channel 9, which grew 30 percent over last year’s “Ellen” average). But their gain is Channel 4’s loss: Channel 4 slipped 28 percent from last year’s “Dr. Phil” average ratings.
CBS on a roll.
Meanwhile, in prime time, CBS appears to be off to a very strong start — including its best premiere week Tuesday ratings in 16 years, an audience of 21 million for the return of “NCIS,” which retained 19 million viewers for the new spinoff “NCIS: Los Angeles,” and then 14 million for the Julianna Margulies drama, “The Good Wife.”
Don’t write the obituary for network television just yet.
The network’s move of “The Mentalist,” last year’s strongest new series, from Tuesday to Thursday nights was a gamble. So far, it seems to have paid off.
This week’s premieres.
The key premieres this week:
ABC’s “The Middle,” on Wednesday (7:30 on Channel 7), which finds pure laughs in an old-fashioned situation comedy about a harried working wife and mother in the Midwest, played by Patricia Heaton. Heaton plays the role with smarts — it’s not that this woman is inept, it’s that the responsibilities are never ending, the time management impossible. The kids are great actors too. This half-hour doesn’t need to be cutting edge or gimmicky, just funny. And it succeeds.
SyFy’s “Stargate Universe,” on Friday, a brand new story that welcomes viewers who never joined the previous “Stargate” franchise. Launching with a two-hour movie, the cast boasts Robert Carlyle, David Blue and Ming Na. They play a team of explorers stuck in a faraway corner of the universe on an old spaceship, part of a long-ago experiment, unable to return to Earth. Could be habit forming.
CBS’s “Three Rivers,” on Sunday (8 p.m. on Channel 4), about an organ-transplant team based at a Pittsburgh hospital. Alex O’Loughlin, Katherine Moennig and Alfre Wood- ard are part of a large ensemble. Based on the pilot, this looks like a one-note medical show, more serious than soap operatic like “Grey’s Anatomy,” but highlighting a great deal of earnest rushing around with no let up.
“Disaster House.”
The extreme home-improvement series “Disaster House” premieres at 8 p.m. Oct. 6 on DIY (channel 277 on Comcast). The house, located in Englewood, is trashed and repaired by contractor Josh Temple and team on a weekly basis. The production company, High Noon, has gotten an earful from angry neighbors. Now you can see the results as a 900-pound piano is dropped through the roof, a roller- derby team trashes the living room and an 8,000-pound African elephant clogs a toilet. Flood, fire and more, shot from many angles and replayed in show motion. “Stick around,” Temple says, “it’s time to break stuff!”
Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com
