Eastern Freeze Warms Syndies

Oh the weather outside is frightful — but the ratings are so delightful. The big blizzard that engulfed the Northeast on Presidents Day drove up viewer numbers for syndicated shows for that entire week, according to Nielsen Media Research rankings posted Tuesday. Most strips notched up new season highs or matched their best numbers to date.

Freshman hit "Dr. Phil" (5.8 rating) posted a new ratings high with a 14% increase week-to-week. Another rookie, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" (3.7), also landed a new high with 9% week-to-week increase. "Millionaire" had its first million-dollar winner Feb. 18 and posted its highest-ever number on that date (4.5).

Other new shows exceeding or matching their best numbers included "Pyramid" (2.1), up 5%; "The John Walsh Show" (1.6), up 7%; and "Celebrity Justice" (1.4), up 8%.

Also posting season-best numbers were "Wheel of Fortune" (1.6), up 6%; "Jeopardy!" (8.3), up 5%; "Live! With Regis & Kelly" (4.6), up 7%; "Maury" (3.8), up 15%; and "The Oprah Winfrey Show" (7.4), up 9%. "Entertainment Tonight" (6.9) matched its season high and posted an 8% week-to-week increase.

The weekly syndication rankings also coincided with the final sweep weekend numbers for all the weekly syndicated programs. Topping the weekly hours by a wide margin for the full sweep period (Jan. 30-Feb. 26) was "Entertainment Tonight Weekend" (4.0), posting a year-to-year gain of 5%. Off-network drama "The Practice" was in second place with a 2.5, up 4% from last year's February sweep. It tied with "The X-Files" (2.5), down 11%.

Rounding out the top 10 sweep weeklies were "Stargate SG-1" (2.4), down 14%; "Mutant X" (2.3), down 8%; "World's Wildest Police Videos" (2.3), down 8%; "Andromeda" (2.2), down 27%; "ER" (2.2), down 4%; "Adventure Inc.," with a 2.1 in its first February sweep; and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (2.1), down 19%.