Nate Berkus, the interior-decorating Oprah protogé who got his own daily show last month, is having trouble mixing and matching.
Promising early ratings for the show are fading fast — and some TV people are predicting it may be the first Oprah-ordained show not to end up at the head of the class in its freshman year.
In years past, Oprah launched Dr. Phil, TV cook Rachael Ray and surgeon-turned-health-show-host Dr. Oz on daytime TV with shows of their own.
Each one was the highest-rated new show of the year when it began and the same was expected of the earnest young decorator’s show, which is taped in New York.
But after a month on the air, Berkus (3 p.m., Ch. 4) is sputtering and now ranks behind cable anchor Nancy Grace’s new judge show, “Swift Justice.”
The new Nancy Grace show is being seen by about 2 million viewers a day, according to the latest ratings. Berkus is a distant second, with only about 1.2 million viewers.
“Berkus is likeable, but he pings from decorating to mommy bloggers to saving money to auction tips with the occasional celebrity appearance, making it difficult to discern the show’s true identity,” wrote medialifemagazine.com, an industry website.