Inherit the Oprah

The battle between Katie Couric and Family Feud's Steve Harvey to inherit Oprah's talk show audience continues to garner media attention.

Media reporters have to chatter about something, but I have to wonder if Oprah's audience hasn't already dribbled away. Her ratings were headed down, down, down before she finally packed it in, and her OWN venture ain't doing so swell. Are there really huddled masses of Oprah-deprived daytime viewers yearning for a new icon?

I also have to wonder if Harvey isn't spreading his media empire a little thin. The radio show, Feud, the TV talker, the books, the movies, the baseball cards (I made up that last one)...after a while, there's only so much Steve any audience can absorb. But Harvey is hot right now thanks to Feud's improved ratings and the surprise success of his movie. He's got quite a few kids to support, after all, so I can't blame him for making hay while the media sun shines.

Will the talk show cut into Feud's numbers, as viewers get Steve-overloaded? I doubt it, but I could be generalizing from little old me. I never watch talkers, which makes me think most game show fans also aren't interested.

UPDATE: TVNewsCheck reports Steve Harvey's talk show averaged a 1.5 household rating, up considerably from the same time slots last year.