The results of this year's February sweep are tough to gauge since NBC's broadcast of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, aired during half the sweep last year, but most shows were down year to year. The February sweep ran from January 29 through Feb. 25.
Among the talkers, CBS Television Distribution's Dr. Phil won its 10th consecutive major sweep with a 3.6 live plus same day household rating average, according to Nielsen Media Research. This marked the highest February sweep ratings for Phil since 2008 and a gain of 3% over last year. In addition, Phil led among daytime's key demographic of women 25-54, averaging a 1.8.
Disney-ABC's Live with Kelly and Michael also had a strong sweep, clocking the show's biggest February ratings in eight years with 6% growth from last year to a 3.3.
Warner Bros.' Ellen DeGeneres declined 6% from last year to a third place 3.0. Ellen airs on NBC owned stations in major markets and factored out of the ten weekdays of the Olympic Games, which represented half the sweep.
NBCUniversals Steve Harvey and Maury rounded out the top five with each show averaging a 2.1. Harvey, in its third season, held steady with last February and rose 31% from two years ago. Like Ellen, Harvey airs on NBC owned stations in top markets. Maury dipped 5%.
In sixth place, Debmar-Mercury's Wendy Williams improved 19% to a 1.9, that show's all-time best February sweeps in households.
Meanwhile, Sony Pictures Television's Dr. Oz, also in its sixth season, declined the most of any talk show, dropping 35% from last February to an all- time February low 1.5, after being battered by negative publicity and heavily downgraded at the start of last season.
CTD's Rachael Ray and NBCU's Steve Wilkos both eased 6% to a 1.5, tying Dr. Oz. NBCU's Jerry Springer and CTD's The Doctors, as both held steady at a 1.4 and 1.2, respectively.
SPT's Queen Latifah tumbled 17% to a 1.0, and will end its run at the end of this month. Meredith's The Better Show, which will fade out at the end of the season, was unchanged at a 0.2.
CTD's panel court show, Hot Bench, continued to lead the first-run rookies, all of whom have been renewed for second seasons. Hot Bench showed the biggest increase in households over its September premiere week, shooting up 38% to a 1.8.
Debmar-Mercury's Celebrity Name Game gained 27% since September to a second-place 1.4. Warner Bros.' The Real rose 30% to a 1.3 in households for third place, but led among women 25-54 with a 1.0, a gain of 25% since September.
NBCU's Meredith Vieira dropped from its 1.3 opening week household rating, losing 8% to a 1.2. Trifecta's Judge Faith finished up 14% at a 0.8.
Court shows were mostly down. CTD's Judge Judy, the host of which just renewed her contract through 2020, scored a 7.3, slipping 9% from last year.
Warner Bros.' People's Court shrank 10% to a 1.8. Twentieth's Divorce Court dropped 11% to a 1.6. Warner Bros.' Judge Mathis sagged 12% to a 1.5, while MGM's sophomore, Lauren Lake's Paternity Court, bucked the trend, spiking 18% to a 1.3.
Debmar-Mercury's Family Feud had game's biggest increase over last February, leaping 17% to a 6.8 in households. Meanwhile, Disney-ABC's Who Wants to be a Millionaire had the biggest and only decline in the category, skidding 14% to a 1.9. At the top of both the games, and overall syndication, CTD's Wheel of Fortune improved 3% to a 7.6. Next in line, CTD's Jeopardy! answered with a 7.4, up 6%.
Elsewhere, MGM's video variety show RightThisMinute grew 33% to a 1.6, with sharply improved clearances this season.
CTD's Entertainment Tonight continued to lead the magazines for the 97th sweep in a row - or more than 24 years - improving 5% to a 3.9. CTD's Inside Edition rallied 10% to a 3.4. Warner Bros.' TMZ added 5% to a 2.2. NBCU's Access Hollywood and Warner Bros.' Extra, both of which saw huge gains last year as a result of airing prior to the Olympics in primetime, saw drop-off this year. Access Hollywood lost 5% to a 2.0 and Extra eased 11% to a 1.7. CTD's The Insider held steady at a 1.4.
The traditional entertainment magazines were given an assist in the final days of the sweep with coverage of the 87th annual Academy Awards.
On Monday, Feb. 23, ET jumped 15% from the prior week to a 4.5. Access Hollywood grew 5% to a 2.0. Extra shot up 19% to a 1.9. The Insider spiked 31% to a 1.7. Inside Edition and TMZ, neither of which are traditional entertainment magazines, had mixed results following the Oscars, with Inside Edition growing 3% to a 3.5, and TMZ declining 9% to a 2.0.
Back in the sweep, Twentieth's Dish Nation was steady compared to last February at a 1.1, while Trifecta's OK! TV climbed 50% from a 0.2 to a 0.3.
The top-tier sitcoms were all down. Warner Bros.' leader The Big Bang Theory dipped 3% to a 6.4 in its fourth season. Twentieth's Modern Family eroded 22% to a 3.8 in year two. Warner Bros.' Two and a Half Men moved 20% lower to a 3.2 in its eighth year. Twentieth's Family Guy, also in season eight, slumped 17% to a 2.5, tying Warner Bros.' freshman Mike & Molly. Twentieth's How I Met Your Mother was flat at a 2.3 in year five. SPT's Seinfeld strengthened 16% in year 20 to a 2.2. Twentieth's sophomore, The Cleveland Show, was unchanged at a 1.9. Also in its second season, Warner Bros.' The Middle gained 20% to a 1.8, while Twentieth's King of the Hill climbed 6% to a 1.7 in year 14.
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
The results of this year's February sweep are tough to gauge since NBC's broadcast of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, aired during half the sweep last year, but most shows were down year to year. The February sweep ran from January 29 through Feb. 25.
