TV

Wendy Williams off to a hot start in daytime

Lost amid all the ratings news about freshman talk shows (“Queen Latifah,” “Arsenio” et al.) is that veteran yakker Wendy Williams has gotten off to a hot start in the land of daytime.

Through the first five weeks of the syndicated season (Sept. 16 through Oct. 18), “The Wendy Williams Show” has kicked some serious butt in its New York timeslot (10 a.m./Ch. 5) — finishing first in households and in the all-important women demos (18-49 and 25-54). It’s also registered significant gains in those demos over its October 2012 average — with increases of 52 percent in households, and 20 and 35 percent, respectively, in women 18-49 and women 25-54. Nationally, the show’s ratings are up 27 percent over the first three weeks of last season — and are also up in women 18-49 (12 percent) and women 25-54 (25 percent) over that same time frame.

It’s the same story in total viewers — with “Wendy” averaging 197,000 viewers on Ch. 5 (up 61 percent over last year) and 1.7 million viewers nationally (up 25 percent over a year ago.)

Elsewhere on the talk-show scene, TBS has announced the opening-night guest lineup for “The Pete Holmes Show,” premiering Oct. 28 (midnight) with Kumail Nanjiani and a visit to Jon Stewart.

B’klyn nets some news

While “CSI” celebrates its 300th episode Wednesday night, its CBS stablemate, “The Good Wife,” is marking its 100th episode — but not with the old cake-on-the-set photo op. This Saturday, the “Good Wife” cast and crew will be rebuilding a house in Brooklyn destroyed by Hurricane Sandy in conjunction with the St. Bernard Project. Well done.

In other “borough” news, “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” co-star Andre Braugher, when asked by People magazine to pick a role if he could, says he’s jonesing to play a young woman. Really. “I’d love to do a super-fast-paced comedy like ‘New Girl . . . I’d play a wisecracking reporter. I’d be the new girl at the Daily Planet,” he says in the magazine’s Oct. 23 issue.

Last, but not least . . .

VH1’s biopic about ’90s girl band TLC, “Crazy Sexy Cool,” snared 4.5 million viewers Monday night — the network’s highest-rated telecast in five-plus years . . . “Late Show” band leader Paul Shaffer and his daughter, Victoria, stop by Wednesday’s “Good Day New York” (Ch. 5) to promote “National Adopt A Shelter Dog Month” . . . “Dateline” moves to its new timeslot Friday on NBC (8 p.m./Ch. 4) . . . Irish chef/restaurateur Kevin Dundon makes his US TV debut with “Kevin Dundon’s Modern Irish Food,” starting Oct. 26 (noon) on Ch. 21 and Oct. 27 (2:30 p.m.) on Ch. 13 . . . TV’s Gavin MacLeod signs copies of his book, “This Is Your Captain Speaking,” Thursday (7 p.m.) at Barnes & Noble (82nd & Broadway).