Oprah's ratings crater; did Obama hurt her? What's Gayle doing next summer?

Apologies for going all Perez Hilton on that picture there ... but what a stunning development for the so-called Queen Of Talk. "The Oprah Winfrey Show" finished fourth in its time slot here in July, despite airing on a powerhouse ABC affiliate.

KCTV, which won the hour, is understandably giddy: "This marks the first win for KCTV5 News at 4, and the first time in 6 years that any program on any station in Kansas City has beat Oprah!" exclaims the press release (reprinted in full below).

The reality, however, is that "Oprah" is finishing second and third in major markets across the country this summer. And these ratings have some of us wondering if Oprah is working for her audience anymore.

To be sure, these are reruns we're talking about. Winfrey always takes the whole summer off, like most syndicated talk shows. But she's always held her own in the ratings even with repeats. Not this summer. In Kansas City "Oprah" finished behind "KCTV5 News at 4" and "Judge Judy" on Fox 4 and "Jeopardy"-"Millionaire" on KSHB. Yes, KSHB, the same station KMBC used to trounce by 5-to-1 margins with "Oprah," even when "Rosie O'Donnell" was on KSHB and people still liked Rosie.

Kansas City appears to be the worst of any mid- or major market performance for "Oprah." Still, Kansas City is hardly the exception. In the July ratings, "Oprah" finished third in Houston; third in D.C.; third in Pittsburgh; third in Miami; second in NYC, Dallas, St. Louis, Atlanta ... hell, in two markets it was beaten by "The Young & the Restless."

For most of her 22 years in national syndication Winfrey has been the most influential celebrity in America. Her magazine had the most successful launch in history. She made Dr. Phil a star. Books seen on "Oprah" leaped bestseller lists in a single bound.

But that came with a high sticker price that station managers across the country must be questioning today as they get their July ratings books.

"Oprah" is one of the most expensive investments any television station can make. But now the people who air her show are asking: What have you done for me lately, Oprah? Besides endorse Barack Obama and launch new businesses that enrich her further, not much.

The show has been drifting back to Earth, losing 7 percent of its audience nationwide this year alone. O Magazine saw a double-digit decline in circulation. Authors can no longer count on the "Oprah effect." And her endorsement of Barack Obama may have turned off, literally, viewers who supported Hillary Clinton.

When the "book" comes out in a couple of weeks, and we can get our hands on demographic data, the picture will likely improve for "Oprah" ... at least in the "Y&R" markets. But will that be enough to placate general managers who are paying through the nose for her reruns?

Oprah has been on the Johnny Carson broadcast diet for some time now, cutting back on episodes and taking summers off while shows like "Live" and even "Judge Judy" mix in some first-runs. Should she think about hiring a guest host? Can we bring back "The Gayle King Show" to fill the gap between Memorial Day and Labor Day?

Meanwhile, how big is this for "Judge Judy"? She's the main beneficiary of "Oprah's" ratings decline, and despite her own rerun-heavy schedule has been winning this summer in New York, Dallas, the Bay Area, Atlanta and many other markets. Even before the summer, "Judge Judy" was on a tear. You might say she's really shaking things up.

Here are the brag sheets I have so far, from KCTV-5 and KMBC-9, the market leaders.

KCTV5 News at 4pm dethrones Queen of Daytime

Kansas City MO – 7-31-2008 – The 2008 July sweeps are over and Kansas City viewers decidedly chose KCTV5 News at 4PM, over all other shows in the time period, including Oprah. KCTV5 News at 4PM finished with a 5.1 rating to Oprah’s 3.8 (live household rating). Judge Judy on WDAF finished second. This marks the first win for KCTV5 News at 4, and the first time in 6 years that any program on any station in Kansas City has beat Oprah!

“Our news staff produces compelling content everyday for KCTV5 News at 4 and viewers have responded to that. We consistently bring Kansas Citians the live, late-breaking news they’ve come to expect” said Tracy Miller, news director.

The great news doesn’t stop there: KCTV5 News at 5PM also was #1 in its time period and showed significant year to year growth, up a staggering 19% since July 2007. “We are not surprised at these results” said Kirk Black, vice president and general manager. “The team has worked hard to improve our afternoon block of news using recent research projects and a very strategic approach. It’s all about content and marketing,” Black continued. “Our afternoon news growth continues an upward trend that started 6 ratings periods ago. It’s incredibly rewarding to see the viewers respond.”

Other highlights from July include:

-KCTV5’s More in the Morning was up +11% since May

-KCTV5’s More in the Morning on My KSMO-TV was up +71% since May

-KCTV5 News at Noon was up +5% over last July and beat its nearest competitor by +82% in ratings

-KCTV5 News at 6PM was up +23% in share VS last year and cut KMBC’s lead by more than half!

-KCTV5 News at 9 on My KSMO-TV was up +5% in share VS May and July

-KCTV5 News at 10 was up +5% in share versus July ’07 (M-F) despite its prime lead-in being down by -13%

-My KSMO-TV’s late fringe comedy line-up (10p-midnight) was up +16% from a year ago!

KMBC 9 NEWS IS ONCE AGAIN KANSAS CITY’S NEWS LEADER

KANSAS CITY, MO (July 31st, 2008) – KMBC 9 News is once again Kansas City’s number one choice for news and weather at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. according to Nielsen Media Research.

“We are proud to be #1 in the highly coveted 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscasts,” says KMBC 9 News Director, Sherrie Brown. “I applaud our team who did outstanding work, including the continuing investigation into the brain tumor issue in Cameron, Mo. It is a story that has sparked national attention on how we track brain tumors and what causes them.”

“We also took time to have some fun and explore our own backyard by traveling to towns to show viewers different thing to do close to home. We showed people places to explore without spending lots of money.”

KMBC 9 News at 10 finished the July ratings period with a 9.8/17. It was also the only 10 p.m. newscast to increase its audience share from July 2007.

KMBC 9 News at 6 p.m. continued its winning streak with a 7.8/15; outperforming its closest competitor by 20%.

More Kansas City viewers are turning to KMBC 9 FirstNews in the morning. At 5 a.m. KMBC delivered a 1.8/11. That’s more than a 20% improvement over last year. The 5:30 a.m. newscast also saw an increase of 17%.

“We are also celebrating the success of our morning news team who have been together less than a year, but are enjoying the largest increase in viewers of any morning news team in town,” Brown added.

KMBC 9 FirstNews Weekend also made a big jump in the ratings. The Saturday morning newscast is up 29% from last year, and Sunday morning is up 21%.

In addition to news programming, “Two and a Half Men” continues to be a late night powerhouse for KMBC. The syndicated program improved its time period from last year by a whopping 57%.

Comments

[Don]

I don't live in the KC market or have any other skin in the game... but shouldn't the press release say... "we beat Oprah reruns! Look at us! Aren't we great! We beat shows that aired eight months ago! We're neato!"

(Don, I'm guessing you don't have a background in PR. Seriously, though, Oprah's reruns have handily beaten the competition for years. Including KCTV5 News at 4. What's so different this year that the reruns aren't working?--AB)

[Cliff]

These aren't just reruns. These are reruns of reruns of reruns. In Chicago, Oprah is shown both in the morning and right after Nightline (pushing Jimmy Kimmel back to 12:05 am). So every day is a rerun day. Given that many of her episodes are repeated not just twice, but three times, that's six times for a single episode!

[Stooge]

I never watch the show, but I can't help but respect Oprah for all this. She stays true to herself and loses some ratings share... but at least she's doing what she believes in. A populist Oprah is much less interesting than one who's willing to take a risk and speak her mind.

[Amy]

Personally, I think it's two-fold. The Obama thing certainly factors in. But Oprah has also shifted the focus of her show over the past few years. It seems like every week is all RAH RAH WOMEN BOO TO MEN. Or Poor Misunderstood Women(tm). Annoying, condescending and that's not good for ratings. I only tune in when a Celeb I like is on.

[Brandyjane]

While her enthusiastic support of Obama is probably a part of the ratings slide, I think an even bigger reason is the New Age spirituality she injects into nearly every topic. It alienates viewers from all across the religious spectrum, from atheists who think it's just stupid to Christians who believe she's leading people astray. The woman had an entire episode on past lives! And now she has those weekly online discussion groups about her brand of spirituality. It's getting creepy. Viewers don't tune into Oprah to watch the Church of Oprah.

[Joanna]

I agree with Amy about the general anti-man slant of the show. The main reason I quit watching 3 or 4 years ago, though, was that I got tired of the hypocrisy. Oprah preaches her dismay at what our "celebrity-driven" culture is doing to the country and then fawns like a teenager over every actor that does her show. Her show expends a *lot* of effort to make sure we all love the celebrities that show up.

[modean]

Well Oprah may take the summer off but it's clear from the comments here that her staff is hard at work. :)

Seriously folks, either you don't get it or you don't want to get it. Oprah saw her ratings slip months ago when she first openly endorsed Obama over Hillary but it wasn't enough for her to drop in comparison to the competition. Now in repeats she's actually losing ground. If you don't get that a woman who's practically become an industry unto herself is now seeing it slip away because she is showing overt support for a political candidate for the first time, then you just don't get it.

[Stushie]

Oprah lost a lot of viewers when she decided to endorse and promote Eckhart Tolle's book, A New Earth. Dabbling in New Age hocus-pocus turned off lots of Christians.

[Laura]

I have talked with several people with different ethnic backgrounds, religion or not as to why they have stopped watching or “reduced” their watching Oprah; across the board many felt that her support for Obama was damaging to her. “She jumped on the boat before really knowing the candidates” is a quote from one I recall. Most felt it was because of her new spirituality. The “chanting” birthday (or woman’s) party she held. Most people thought she was a God fearing, Jesus Christ believing Christian. Her (Oprah) Stating “What? God is jealous of Me?” - when she denounce that belief, Christians stopped watching. When she began to force this belief in every avenue she could, more left. I myself was never an “Oprah’s on! I must drop everything!” type of person. Although I am a Christian, neither reason stated above is why I stopped watching her nearly 4 years ago. IMHO, her show quality has disintegrated. I feel that may be another main cause - people have had enough of the "Oprah" scene.. It's time to move on.

[Steve]

I, too, have stopped watching, though in my case it's more of a coincidence. Now I've got 14 on the TiVo and I go through and see what the topic is, and then I click delete.

As far as ratings decline, this has got to be a boon to the glut of new talkshows that will be coming this fall.

And while Tyra Banks has proclaimed herself "The NEW Oprah" I just don't think that's the case. I don't think she has the universal appeal that one would need to fill that roll.

At the same time, Oprah won't panic. Ratings, like so many other things in life, are cyclical, and nobody knows that better than her. She'll slump, and then (hopefully) kick it in to high gear this fall.

[Rose]

I no longer watch Oprah under an circumstances and it has NOTHING to do with Obama. I truly think that everyone is way off base with this one. If that were true, Movie and Television would be taking a huge hit too - 95% of Hollywood supports Obama. The reason and I am sure of it is her support and pushing of the teachings of Eckhart. There was a grass roots movement to boycott her show about the same time as the Obama appearance. That is the true story. How come no one will report that?