Ratings: syndies blah out

Syndicated game shows sighed through the week of February 4-10. They were flat or lost a tenth of a point. Big news, right? But the ever watchful TVNewsCheck offers the less than thrilling details...

Wheel of Fortune 7.7 - down a tick
Jeopardy 6.9 - flat
Family Feud 5.2 - down a tick
Millionaire 2.6 - flat
Let's Ask America 1.8 - down a tick, seeing a pattern here?
Baggage 1.1 - flat

Ho-hum. At least TV by the Numbers brings lots of numbers for the top three shows. The viewership averages: Wheel of Fortune 12.1 million (weekend repeat 6.0 million), Jeopardy 10.7 million (weekend repeat 4.6 million), Family Feud 7.8 million. The numbers are still impressive even in a blah week.

Total Blackout has been, well, fading to Nielsen black on SyFy. The latest run on February 19 got 752K viewers and an underwhelming 0.3 19-49 rating. That would be great for GSN but it's not so hot for SyFy. A science fiction network may not be the best home for a traditional, studio-based game show.

GSN enjoyed a nice week for February 11-17 by our frugal network's standards: 350K/291K viewership averages prime time/total day. As always, Steve Harvey led the way with Family Feud.