BRITNEY SPEARS - BRITNEY REMAINS RATINGS WINNER FOR TABLOID TV

BRITNEY REMAINS RATINGS WINNER FOR TABLOID TV

The latest tribulations of Britney Spears fired up the ratings of the syndicated entertainment magazines last week but proved to be disastrous for Dr. Phil McGraw. According to Broadcasting & Cable, Entertainment Tonight saw its ratings soar a whopping 26 percent during the week ending January 6 -- with much of the rise attributed to its Friday, Jan. 4 coverage of Spears's enforced hospitalization, when ratings climbed 34 percent over the previous Friday. Ratings for Extra leaped 20 percent. Inside Edition saw its ratings climb 15 percent from the previous week, while Access Hollywood's numbers were up 14 percent, and Insider, 11 percent. Meanwhile, the New York Daily News reported that, despite canceling his planned "intervention" show involving the pop star, bookers for Dr. Phil have been having difficulty lining up celebrity guests to appear on his 1,000th show. One source told the newspaper, "Nobody wants to go near it" since the Spears episode. Although the newspaper also claimed that Dr. Phil's popularity has also plummeted, the latest ratings indicated that he remained second only to Oprah Winfrey as the highest-rated daytime talk-show host, averaging a 4.0 rating to Winfrey's 4.7.

17/01/2008