Update on Rachael Ray's Talk Show

TV Week reports that Rachael Ray's talk show is still beating other new talk shows in the ratings race. For the week ending October 8, Rachael Ray "continued to lead among new syndicated shows by a wide margin." The ratings were down 5 percent from the week before, but TV Week (who, I guess knows what it's talking about), says that "the drop was hardly unusual for the week."

Rachael received a 2.0 national household rating for the week ending October 8th, so how is Rachael's competition doing?

Among other new shows, "Geraldo at Large" was down 13 percent to a 1.4, "Christina's Court" was unchanged with a 1.3 and "The Dr. Keith Ablow Show" was down 10 percent to .9.

"The Megan Mullally Show" was up 13 percent to a 0.9 versus the prior week, but took a hit in distribution. The show was downgraded on NBC stations in New York and Columbus, Ohio. The downgrade was not reflected in the Oct. 8 figures, but according to the metered market ratings, the first two days in the new time slots gave "Mullally" a 0.7 average.

Megan's show was also downgraded to a less desirable time slot in Los Angeles. Rachael maintained her 2.0 rating in the week ending October 15th, too, despite having what Broadcasting & Cable called "poor lead-ins in a number of top-10 markets." Rachael Ray is "averaging more than 2.5 million per episode, and remained the dominant new talk show." For comparison, the Chicago Tribune reports that Rachael is tied with Ellen DeGeneres and Business Week reports that she currently has 46 percent more viewers than Martha Stewart.

The show has also earned the praise of at least one critic. Walt Belcher of the Tampa Tribune says that while the show's debut was "shrill," "the weekday program has been entertaining for me when I can catch an episode."

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