Rating Report: “Family Feud” Beats “Jeopardy!” and Ties “Wheel of Fortune” in Key Demographics
A few months ago it was teased by analysts that Family Feud could come close to beating Jeopardy!, if not beating it entirely…ending a long history of Sony’s game show powerhouse of Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune as one and two. Feud has come out of the gate swinging. The ratings are out and the Steve Harvey-hosted game debuted its 14th season with an impressive 3.9 rating. This ranked it as the 4th most watched of all first-run strips. Feud‘s debut week rating is 50% above its 13th season debut and 46% higher in the key women 25-54 demographic. It hasn’t beaten them in overall viewers, but it’s now above them in that key demographic. For the week ending September 16th Feud hit its highest rating since March 9, 1992, when Ray Combs was hosting.
Feud‘s 1.9 key women demographic rating places it above Jeopardy!‘s 1.5 rating and ties it with Wheel of Fortune‘s 1.9. Those two were still in reruns at this time. The 3.9 overall rating is 30% higher year-to-year from its recently concluded 13th season. This still places it in 3rd, but not by far. It’s only off 0.9 from Jeopardy!‘s 4.8. You may want to watch these two this year. This could be a dog fight. Wheel of Fortune is still up high 5.9. Who Wants to be a Millionaire hit a snag, though, dropping 13% in its second week to a 2.0 rating.
Debmar-Mercury Co-Presidents Mort Marcus and Ira Bernstein stated, “We expected substantial ratings growth from Feud with the greatly improved station lineup and are thrilled to see this amazing result for its debut number. Thanks to a phenomenal host in Steve Harvey, Fremantle’s incredible production team and our very enthusiastic station partners, we believe this is only the tip of the iceberg as to where the ratings will go this season.”
Congratulations to everyone at Family Feud for the massive success of the new season and as they prepare the 15th. We look forward to seeing how high this season can go.
Sources :
TVWeek: http://www.tvweek.com/news/2012/09/family_feud_enters_14th_season.php
B&C: http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/489549-Syndication_Ratings_Katie_Premieres_as_Top_Talk_Rookie_Ellen_Has_Best_Premiere_In_Ten_Year_History.php
Not that the numbers are not impressive to be sure, but to be fair and “apples to apples,” aren’t shows primarily seen in double run (Feud, the court shows and so on), now counted on the basis of a cumulative rating? That would make a direct comparison impossible, if station “A” gets to count the reach of two Feuds, while station “B” gets only 1 Wheel and 1 Jeopardy.
Talk about full circle…..remember it was Wheel that dethroned Feud in the mid 80s….is a rematch far behind?
Talk about full circle…..remember it was Wheel that dethroned Feud in the mid 80s….is a rematch far behind?Steve H. Is doing an incredible job wkth the questions more risque and fun to plau along
If Mark Goodson was still alive, he’d be seeking revenge on WOF.
If Merv was still alive he’d have to have a war with Mark Goodson.
It’s interesting to see how well FF is doing in the syndicated ratings against Wheel of Fortune. However, if both men were alive to see this, I don’t know if Mark Goodson or Merv Griffin would have a war with each other. Mark Goodson did give Merv Griffin his first game show hosting job in 1958 with “Play Your Hunch”, so who knows?
In any case, I hope Family Feud, Wheel of Fortune, and Jeopardy keep doing really well so viewers can enjoy all of them.
Don’t forget when “Tic Tac Dough” and “The Joker’s Wild” was on in the late 70′s to the mid 80′s. When Jack Barry and Dan Enright had 2 great game shows on until “Wheel” ate in to their ratings, and Jack Barry died in 1984. If Barry and Enright were still alive today, they would get in with the war with the other game shows. Both TTD and TJW are due for revivals after both versions in 1990 flopped.
Wow. Congrats to Debmar-Mercury and Fremantle on Feud’s success!
If I were them, I wouldn’t get rid of Steve anytime soon. I think Anderson, Karn and O’Hurley were each only hosting it for 3-4 years. Steve should remain the host for a much longer time, considering that he’s one of the main reasons Feud is doing so well right now.
I never thought that FF would be matching up with Jeopardy and even Wheel. Being a big Wheel fan, and not at all a fan of the current Steve Harvey version, I’m quite surprised. I guess people like the dirty direction the show has taken.
I know in some markets, two episodes of Jeopardy! are run each day, but don’t think this is the case with Wheel of Fortune. I’m surprised Sony isn’t trying to get stations to run two episodes of each.
How can Jeopardy! & wheel get double runs if they are on between local news & primetime programing. Remember Family Feud tipically airs erlier in the day as WWOR airs it at 5:00 against the news on all NYC stations instead of 7:00. also many of the stations that broadcast FF are not the larger ones in there respective markets since those stations air most of the daytime talk, infotainment & court shows throughout the day. As an example, WNBC airs Steve Harvy’s talk show at 3:00 against DR. Phil, Peoples Court & Katie & didn’t tie it to FF since either WNBC wanted to keep Ellen in it’s slot or WWOR thaught Dish Nation would be a better programing decision to air after it.
Easy. In Dallas, J! runs at 11am and 6pm local time (different stations owned by CBS). Here in Cincy, a new 6pm (followed by the news) was just added to the usual 7:30.
Is the 11:00am airing of J! the prior days episode? Oh I see you have a duopoly with your CBS afiliates. Same here with Fox & My Network in NYC.
On my TV schedule, NBC airs Wheel at 7 pm and Jeopardy at 7:30 pm.
CBS competes by airing a full hour of Steve’s Feud at 7 and 7:30 as well.
Do you know how many markets have woF & FF go head to head? Also wich ones they are.
SF for one. KPIX airs Family Feud against J! on KGO at 7PM (it fills 730 with Judge Judy).
Double runs of Jeopardy are far and away the exception, hence there’d be precious little to count there vis a vis the more common double running of Feud.
The fairer yardstick for this type of “beauty pageant” comparison would be in market, head to head half hour to half hour. That, however, isn’t what’s published this way.
Here in the Boston area, Family Feud runs at 3 and 3:30 on WHDH-7 against Dr.Phil and Katie. Wheel and Jeopardy run at 7 and 7:30 against Big Bang, Inside Edition, Chronicle, Access Hollywood, Extra, TMZ,Dish Nation,ET/Insider and whatever is on 56. For the longest time though, CBSTD had a program on channel 4, 5, and 38 in the 7pm time period so it didn’t really matter which property did better.
All aside….its great that FF is getting a better national rating, but the “cumulative ratings” is the same reason Judge Judy is the top overall program in daytime
Having been a Feud fan forever, the only thing I can see from the past is that Gaby Johnston is still the executive producer. She must be the one that sees the talent and makes the most of any host they have.