‘Oprah’ Will Win Year’S Ratings War

Mon., May 18, 1998

Richard Huff New York Daily News

“Jerry Springer” pounded out another weekly win in the daytime ratings race, according to the latest Nielsen tally. That makes it 11 straight weeks the fight-riddled talker has outdistanced the former champ, “Oprah” (Winfrey).

Still, it should be noted, when the TV season ends this week, “Oprah” - which hadn’t lost a weekly race for more than a decade before “Springer” broke through - will still be able to lay claim to a victory in the yearlong race. With the “Springer” challenge not arising until midyear, “Oprah” was able to build an insurmountable lead. But clearly that lead has been trimmed considerably.

For the season to date, “Jerry Springer” is averaging a 6.2 rating, which is up 121 percent from its performance at this point last season. “Oprah” is averaging a 7.3 rating, down 11 percent from last season.

In the latest weekly tally, for April 27-May 5, “The Jerry Springer Show” averaged a 7.7 rating (percentage of the nation’s 98 million TV homes), with 10,080,000 people tuned in.

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