It turns out that James Holzhauer not only lost to Emma Boettcher, he also lost to CBS Television Distributions Judge Judy since the skyrocketing numbers for CTDs Jeopardy! were not enough to topple syndication's highest rated show in the important May sweep (April 25-May 22). The results of which were released Wednesday.
Although most strips were down from last May, the declines were relatively minor compared to the steep drops for the networks, which, for example, reportedly saw average losses of 27% among adults 18-49 over the past two years due mainly to heated competition for viewers from streaming video services.
Judge Judy, the season-to-date household ratings leader, which has been the top ranked show in every May sweep since 2010, lit up the Nielsen chart with a steady, compared to last May, 7.1 live plus same day national sweep average for the survey period. Still going strong in this its 23rd season, the 7.1 matches Judys second-highest May rating in the past five years.
Related: Greg Meidel Joins Judge Judy Sheindlins Queen Bee Productions
None of the other court shows improved. The next highest gaveler was CTDs Hot Bench, which held its ground year-to-year at a 2.3 average and was the No. 3 in daytime for the rating period behind only Judy and CTDs Dr. Phil. After that, Warner Bros. People's Court slid 7% to a 1.4 average. Warner Bros. Judge Mathis remained at a 1.0, and Twentieths Divorce Court sank 22% to a 0.7.
In access, Jeopardy!, which was ignited by James Holzhauer appearances in half the sweep, raced ahead 19% to a 7.0, taking the runner-up spot to Judge Judy overall, and easily leading the game shows. By the May 22nd end of the survey period, the show's ratings had ballooned at times to levels not seen in more than a decade as the Jeopardy! phenom won 25 straight games and nearly $2 million.
Related: Jeopardy! Host Alex Trebek Near Remission in Cancer Fight
Debmar-Mercurys Family Feud and CTDs Wheel of Fortune were neck and neck at a 5.9 average with Feud fading 5% and Wheel, which is paired with Jeopardy! in many markets, inching up 2%. Further back, Disneys the canceled Who Wants to Be a Millionaire broke even at a 1.6. While Entertainment Studios Funny You Should Ask rose 25% from a 0.4 last May to a 0.5.
Disneys viral video show RightThisMinute moved down 14% to a 1.2.
Dr. Phil was the top talker in May for the eighth year in a row by a wide margin despite backing off 13% to a 2.8. This marks the 23rd consecutive sweep victory for Phil, which has led the category for an Oprah-like 142 weeks in a row with five ties. Among women 25-54, Phil was also first with a 1.2 sweep average in the key demo.
Returning to the ratings, Disneys Live With Kelly and Ryan, which had been tied with Warner Bros. Ellen DeGeneres last May, jumped 5% and landed in sole possession of second place with a 2.2. Ellen declined 5% to a 2.0. Debmar-Mercurys Wendy Williams, which had been tied for fifth place last May, leapfrogged over Maury with a 17% spike to a 1.4 in fourth position. NBCUniversals Maury was minus 7% to a 1.3.
Related: Ellen DeGeneres Renewed Through 2021-22 Season
Rounding out the top six was NBCUs Steve, starring Steve Harvey, with a steady 1.2. Going out on a high note, the popular talker heated up in markets like Los Angeles where it ranked second to General Hospital in its 2 p.m. time period and grew 13% from last May.
The bottom half of the chat pack saw NBCUs conflict talker Steve Wilkos perk up 10% to a 1.1. CTDs Rachael Ray retreated 9% to a 1.0, tying Sony Pictures Televisions Dr. Oz, which also dropped 9% to a 1.0. Warner Bros. The Real stayed at a 0.7. CTDs The Doctors fell 14% to 0.6. Disneys Pickler & Ben banked a 33% increase from a 0.3. to a 0.4, tying NBCUs the out-of-production Jerry Springer, which sagged 64% to a 0.4.
The rookie crop saw CTDs Face the Truth confronting a 13% decline from its September debut to a 0.7 while Debmar-Mercurys Caught in Providence was even with its opening week, capturing a 0.5.
Magazines were mostly lower than last May when ratings were boosted by big viewer interest in the royal wedding. Also dragging shows lower was competition with the stratospheric ratings for James Holzhauer on Jeopardy!. CTDs Entertainment Tonight and CTDs Inside Edition tied for the lead at a 2.8 average with both shows slipping 7% from last year.
NBCUs Access was one of only two shows in the top seven to avoid any losses despite directly competing with Jeopardy! in five of the top 20 markets. Access held steady at a 1.2, tying Warner Bros. TMZ, which softened 8% to a 1.2. Warner Bros. Extra ran head-to-head with Jeopardy! in six of the top nine markets and gave back 9% to a 1.0 although it rang up higher ratings in numerous other metered cities such as Providence, Rhode Island, where it climbed 13% to a 4.4 rating, 7 share on WJAR at 7:30 p.m.
Related: Billy Bush to Host Rebranded Extra Extra
CTDs sophomore DailyMailTV held its ground at a 1.0, tying Extra, and was renewed for year three. Twentieths canceled Page Six TV revealed a 14% slide to a 0.6 while Trifectas Celebrity Page was flat at a 0.2.
NBCUs Dateline was the sweep's true crime champ, gaining 8% to a 1.3. SPT's off-A&E Live PD Police Patrol posted a 1.0 in its initial May tour, which was on par with its September opener. While Discoverys True Crime Files disclosed a 0.3 in its first May case, which was even with its September premiere.
NBCUs scripted police procedural Chicago PD earned a 1.0 in its first May, shooting up 25% from its September debut.
Among sitcoms, Warner Bros. The Big Bang Theory weakened 2% to a 4.3 average in its eighth season but easily led the group. Twentieths Last Man Standing slumped 5% to a 2.0 in year three. Twentieths Modern Family faded 19% in year six to a 1.7. SPTs The Goldbergs, in its second go-around, was off 7%
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...
It turns out that James Holzhauer not only lost to Emma Boettcher, he also lost to CBS Television Distributions Judge Judy since the skyrocketing numbers for CTDs Jeopardy! were not enough to topple syndication's highest rated show in the important May sweep (April 25-May 22). The results of which were released Wednesday.
