Syndies: twin towers loom, others gloom

The rich got richer, or the towers got taller, in syndicated game shows for the first week after the holidays. Otherwise, it was mostly dour tidings for the syndies. Broadcasting & Cable presents the two-toned news for the week ending January 9:

Wheel of Fortune 7.8 - up an astonishing nine ticks to a season high
Jeopardy 6.4 - up a none-too-shabby seven ticks, also to a season high
Millionaire 2.3 - flat
Family Feud 1.8 - down a tick
5th Grader 1.0 - down a tick
Lyrics 0.8 - down a tick to near-invisibility

TV by the Numbers finally got around to their top 25 syndie list. The guys at the site regularly note that there's "not enough interest in syndicated" among their readership. That's probably true. Their geeky readers are too busy obsessing over Chuck. Anyway, the imposing viewership averages for the towers: Wheel of Fortune 12.6 million (weekend repeat 3.7 million) and Jeopardy 10.0 million. A helluva lot more viewers than Chuck, even if the demos skew old.

In a bit of broadcast ratings news, Million Dollar Money Drop has been gradually recovering from the holiday blues, though it remains less than a hit. Last night the down-the-tubes quizzer pulled a 1.9 18-49 rating and 5.3 million total viewers. The show could scrape by at these levels. At least Money Drop's pace seems to have picked up a bit, though it could hardly have gotten slower.