In its first week, Sept. 18-22, “Rachael Ray” averaged a 2.3 household rating, in the best debut for a talk show since “Dr. Phil” averaged a 4.4 in 2002. Both shows are produced by Winfrey’s Harpo Productions.

It was the second-best week for any new talk show in the past decade, again behind only “Dr. Phil,” and it was all the more impressive because "Ray's" lead-in was a 1.0 or lower in several top 10 markets.

"Ray" easily tops “Jane Pauley,” which averaged a 1.6 in her first week in 2004, and the 2.0 debut average of “Martha,” the Martha Stewart talker that debuted last year and slid in for the Pauley show in many markets when it was canceled. Though both personalities were better known, they lacked Ray's relatability, which explains their poorer numbers.

Ray is all exuberance and enthusiasm, chatting with guests as easily as she chatters into the camera on her cooking shows. Her one weakness is being too cute at times.

But certainly helping "Ray" is the backing of Winfrey. Her guest appearance on the show's second episode helped boost the show's weekly average. Ray, like Oprah, has a magazine that was a success at launch, Everyday with Rachael Ray.

“I'll bet Oprah, who was able to make Dr. Phil bearable to enough people to make his show a success, will take RR to the moon,” predicts a poster on the forums at Roadfood.com, a site devoted to foodies.

Other new talk shows weren’t nearly as successful. “Megan Mullally,” the NBC Universal-backed show with the former “Will & Grace” star, averaged just a 0.9 in households. That tied a 0.9 for the new show hosted by Dr. Keith Ablow.

Meanwhile, for the week ended Sept. 24, there were no surprises among the late-night shows during the first official week of the season with NBC’s Jay Leno holding a 41 percent lead among total viewers over CBS’s David Letterman, 5.8 million to 4.2 million. In late-late night, NBC’s Conan O’Brien led with a 1.1 in adults 18-49. CBS’s Craig Ferguson, ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel and NBC’s Carson Daly all tied 0.7.

In morning programming, NBC’s “Today” again lead with a 4.6 average household rating and 16 share, ahead of ABC’s “Good Morning America” at 3.7/13 and CBS’s “Early Show” at 2.1/8.

CBS remained the leader in total viewers for daytime dramas and full daytime, at 3.78 million and 4.05 million respectively, but was still behind ABC among the key demo women 18-49. ABC scored a 1.6 rating for that demo in full daytime, ahead of NBC’s 1.5 and third-place CBS’s 1.4.

In syndication, ESPN’s NFL continued to rule, with an 8.4 rating in households to take first. Perennial favorite “Wheel of Fortune” kept second place with a 7.3 rating, but “Oprah” and “Jeopardy” were relegated to a tie for fourth with a rating of 5.6.

Ratings for the Sunday morning news shows were not available at press time.

For the week ended Oct. 1, Katie Couric’s “CBS Evening News” settled into third after its much-hyped premiere week leap in viewers. That put NBC’s Brian Williams back at the top, with 8.18 million viewers, ahead of ABC’s Charles Gibson with 7.56 million and Couric at 7.49.