Was it Oprah — or was it the time of day she was on — that made her so popular?
A year after the queen of daytime ended her afternoon talk show, the shows that took her place turn out to be doing a bit better in ratings, according to a report over the weekend.
Four o’clock in the afternoon — which is when Oprah was usually on around the country — was taken over in most cities by either “Dr. Oz,” an Oprah start-up, or “Ellen.”
The ratings for Oz were up 18 percent over Oprah last year and “Ellen” was up 20 percent, according to a report in Variety.
The report said that those two shows “are the only two talkers drawing a larger overall audience than last year,” indicating that the move to Oprah’s old time slots was the reason for the ratings bump.
The rating for Oprah at one time was 12 million viewers a day. But the number dropped steadily over the years to less than 8 million.