‘Katie’ has best bow in 10 years

Katie Couric certainly knows how to deliver a big debut.

The series premiere of “Katie,” her new syndicated talk show from Disney-ABC Domestic Television, tied for the best bow for any talk show in 10 years.

Yesterday’s show averaged a 2.8 household rating, according to Nielsen metered markets, tying “Rachael Ray” for the top bow since “Dr. Phil” debuted to a 5.2 in 2002.

Since that time, 25 new talk shows have launched, including several highly touted ones yesterday. “Katie” topped them all.

The show built by 12 percent on its lead-in and by 22 percent on the average for the same timeslot a year ago.

“Katie,” which airs at 3 p.m. following “General Hospital” on many ABC stations, finished first in her timeslot in the two biggest TV markets, New York City and Los Angeles. She finished first or second in all 15 of the top markets.

Of course, none of this is all that surprising. The show, which has been in development for more than a year, was expected to do very well in its bow, with a huge amount of promotion behind it and a slew of big-name guests this month.

What’s more important is how Couric does over the next few days and weeks, after the initial curiosity about her show has been satisfied.

After all, Couric knows only too well how fleeting the audience’s attention can be. When she debuted as the new anchor of “CBS Evening News” six years ago, she immediately jumped to No. 1 in the ratings.

But in a matter of weeks, she’d fallen to No. 3, and her telecast went on to set new series lows.

Still, Couric herself remained a popular personality, and she was pursued by virtually every distributor to launch the new talk show.

Couric’s wasn’t the only new talk show debuting yesterday. Among the most notable premieres, “Survivor” host Jeff Probst’s new show averaged a 1.0 and Ricki Lake’s second go-round as a talk show host bowed to a 0.8.

(Note: Lake's show aired on WPIX in New York City, where it was blacked out in 40 percent of the market because of an ongoing retransmission feud between the station's owner, Tribune, and Cablevision.)

New talker “The Steve Harvey Show,” which bowed last week, continued to do well, averaging a 1.5 Monday. And the revamped second season of Anderson Cooper’s show, “Anderson Live,” bowed to a 1.3, topping last year’s 1.1.
 

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