Winfrey Climbs Back To Top Spot

Exactly one year to the week that “The Oprah Winfrey Show” toppled from the No. 1 spot among daytime talk shows, it was back on top.

It wasn’t the first time that “Oprah” reclaimed its old familiar roost in the Nielsens, but the victory for the week ending Feb. 14 was the show’s first, in terms of household ratings, since last November.

Still, archrival “The Jerry Springer Show,” recently labeled a “vulgarity circus” by Winfrey, was tops in terms of total viewers and in many of the key demographic breakdowns that are so craved by advertisers.

It was last week last year that “Jerry Springer” became the first show in more than a decade to topple “Oprah” in the Nielsen charts. Since then, Springer and his fisticuff-laden series have ruled the daytime talk charts and become a lightning rod for watchdog groups who blame the show for so much that’s wrong with television.

Compared to the previous week, “Oprah” was up 8 percent to a 7.0 rating (percentage of the nation’s 99.4 million TV homes), with an average 8,354,000 viewers. Compared to the same week a year ago, “Oprah” was down 19 percent.

As for “Jerry Springer,” for the week of Feb. 19 it was even with its previous week’s numbers, averaging a 6.7 rating, with 8,746,000 viewers. Like “Oprah,” “Jerry Springer” is down compared to the same week last year, 11 percent.