Syndies: down and up

The week between the holidays saw syndicated game shows wobble. The big two slipped some but the bottom two edged up. Political left-wingers might be happy that the rich got a little poorer and the (relatively) poor got a little richer. TVNewsCheck brings the bad and good tidings for the week ending January 1...

Wheel of Fortune 6.8 - down three ticks, as Judge Judy pulls further ahead in household ratings
Jeopardy 5.7 - down a couple ticks
Family Feud 3.2 - up a couple ticks to tie a season high
Millionaire 2.6 - up a tick

TV by the Numbers got their top 25 syndie list up in a hurry. The viewership averages: Wheel of Fortune 11.0 million (weekend repeat 5.2 million), Jeopardy 9.0 million, Family Feud 4.8 million. Meredith just slipped out of the list. Pat and Vanna did beat the loud-mouthed judge in total viewers, anyway.

The Monday, January 9 ratings saw an interesting split in NBC's game shows. Who's Still Standing got more viewers but Fear Factor snagged the higher 18-49 rating. You know who's gonna win that one.

UPDATE: Douglas just posted GSN viewer numbers for the January 2-8 week. The network averaged a so-so 301/227 viewers (in thousands) for prime time/total day.

Dancing With the Stars takes over soon, but the old checkerboard schedule did pretty well with the five-hour marathons on every night except woeful Monday. The averages: Mon 194, Tue 276, Wed 285, Thu 282, Fri 287, Sat 260, Sun 374. 5th Grader accounted for the big Sunday, of course.

Meanwhile, Wipeout continues to slip. The January 12 episode scored 7.1 million viewers and a 2.2 18-49 rating. Not exactly danger territory, but the show may be headed for a fall (like most of its contestants).