Move over, Dr. Oz — there’s a new daytime deputy in town.
“Live With Kelly & Michael” has overtaken “Dr. Oz” to claim second place behind “Dr. Phil” as the most-watched syndicated daytime talk show this season.
For the week ending Oct. 7, the most recent syndicated ratings data available, “Live” averaged 3.4 million viewers with co-hosts Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahan.
“Oz,” which finished second in total viewers last season behind “Dr. Phil,” finished the week of Oct. 7 in fifth place in total viewers, behind “Ellen” and “Maury.”
There are two contributing factors to “Live’s” second-place showing: a rise in viewership from last season and some slipping numbers for “Dr. Oz.”
So far this season, “Live” is up 3 percent in total viewers (and 8 percent in households) over the same time last year, when Regis Philbin was winding down his 26-year run on the show.
“Oz,” meanwhile, has registered a 21 percent dropoff in eyeballs versus this time last year — falling from 3.9 million viewers to 3.1 million viewers, on average, according to Nielsen.
“Dr. Phil” continues to dominate the syndicated daytime talk landscape, pulling in nearly 4 million viewers for the week of Oct. 7, on par with his season average.
Thus far, “Phil” has not been effected by the two strongest freshman daytime entries, “Katie” and “Steve Harvey.”
(All three shows compete against each other here in New York.)
Strahan, 40, replaced Philbin this season on “Live” and continues to be an in-studio analyst for Fox’s NFL coverage.
Philbin, 81, left “Live” last November, and now pops up occasionally on “Rachael Ray.”