Sinking ratings create real problem for Dr. Phil

Dr. Phil often counsels his troubled guests to "get real." But this season the syndicated talk-show guru has gotten an unwelcome dose of reality himself, in the form of plummeting TV ratings.

National ratings for "Dr. Phil" have plunged 27% compared with last season, to an average of 4.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. That's the worst performance by far of any major syndicated talk show this year. By comparison, "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" is up 11% to 3 million viewers, while the No. 1 "The Oprah Winfrey Show" — on which Dr. Phil rose to prominence in the late 1990s — has slipped 8% to 6.6 million.   

Worse, "Dr. Phil" has posted its steepest declines among the women who make up his core viewership. The show has lost fully one-third of its women viewers ages 18 to 49, compared with last year (to a current 1.6 rating), largely erasing the program's once-overwhelming advantages against competitors such as "Ellen DeGeneres," "Live With Regis and Kelly" and "Maury."

Asked to comment on the ratings, a spokeswoman for CBS Television Distribution, which syndicates the show, replied with a statement: "We see the ratings decline as a problem shared by the industry." Only 2 out of 12 talk shows have seen ratings gains this year, "so 'Dr. Phil' is not alone," the statement added.  "While 'Dr. Phil' may be facing some decline, it has ranked second only to 'The Oprah Winfrey Show' for 329 out of 330 weeks." This month, "Dr. Phil" has shown some improvement, although its ratings are still not as high as last year's.

The ratings woes for Dr. Phil add to the problems faced by the TV syndication business, whose economy-whipped executives have been gathering in Las Vegas this week for the annual National Assn. of Television Program Executives convention.

— Scott Collins   

(Photo courtesy Michael Yarish / CBS)

 

'Fringe': A real 'No-Brainer'

"The No-Brainer."

What an aptly titled episode. It refers to our gross-out science of the week: a computer virus that can liquefy a person's brain and make it seep out his or her nose in a way that reminds me all too well of my allergies.

Though, to me, the title has another significance to this episode as a whole. For a show that I've grown to like for its out-there concepts and science, this seemed kinda unimaginative. An unemployed computer programmer creates software that can download itself onto a computer and melt the viewer's mind. His first victim is the son of the man who fired him. This guy created the murderous program, hacked into the FBI system to find out who was investigating his case and, apparently, is willing to sleep at his workstation. So the question is, why was he fired in the first place? This guy knows how to arrange 1s and 0s to make it seem like a hand is reaching out of the screen to turn your gray matter into fondue. You'd think he'd be able to get hired making something for the Wii or XBox 360. Or, if he's really desperate, Playstation 3.

'Biggest Loser': Joelle sees the light, David gives up the fight

The banished teammates are back. We'll have to wait until next week to see how much weight they lost -- although only a few looked like they had lost visible amounts, particularly when compared with the contestants who stayed on the ranch and are already transforming before our eyes.

But before we get to that:

• Blaine made no excuses: "It's a game, and we're playing it," he said of the decision to sucker punch the blue team and send Damien home. The blue team vowed to get revenge: "Now, you're playing with fire," Filipe said.

• Sione banished excuses, too: The episode began with a montage of the at-home contestants and how they've been faring, including Aubrey, trying to work in working out while she's being run ragged by her kids, and Sione, who has been hitting the gym diligently. He said he always used to complain that he "never had time" to get to the gym: "How was I able to get in three, four hours of TV in? ... There's time. You just gotta make it." David, meanwhile, had been smoking and eating fried chicken -- and joking about it.   

HBO's 'The Trials of Ted Haggard' details the pastor's fall

Ted Haggard liked and trusted Alexandra Pelosi. The once-powerful evangelical leader had become friendly with the HBO filmmaker when she was making a documentary about evangelicals in 2005, even taking Pelosi and her husband camping at one point and teaching them how to shoot rifles.

So when Pelosi called Haggard after he was ousted from his church following a gay sex scandal, he was delighted to hear from her. She visited frequently, often filming the disgraced pastor with her hand-held camera, footage she said she wouldn't use unless he was comfortable with it.

Haggard was less than thrilled a year later when Pelosi told him she had made a movie about his exile.

"We were enjoying our privacy," he said. "As the months were passing, we were increasingly able to go to Wal-Mart without being watched. So I told Alexandra that we were not going to be comfortable with it and that I was not happy because I thought she had violated her word."

Pelosi initially shelved the movie. But she was unrepentant about making it.

"As a friend, I wanted to tell his side of the story," she said. "I thought the media had done a disservice to Ted. Am I a vulture, am I a buzzard for showing up at his house and exploiting our friendship? I think anyone who invites Alexandra Pelosi from HBO to their house with a video camera should assume it will end up on HBO."

"The Trials of Ted Haggard," which premieres Thursday  on HBO, is the product of both fortuitous coincidence and the kind of guerrilla filmmaking that marks Pelosi's work. Her best-known documentary, "Journeys With George," resulted from personal footage she took as she covered George W. Bush's 2000 presidential campaign as a producer for NBC. As with Haggard, Bush was taken aback to find his musings stitched together into a film.

It's an approach that may make traditionalists cringe, but the filmmaker, daughter of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), stands behind her technique.

"I would rather beg for forgiveness than ask for permission," she said. "Because asking for permission, everyone is going to be on. That's why, even if people don't like Ted in this movie, you have to feel sorry for him, because he was genuine."

The 45-minute film offers an intimate if fragmentary look at Haggard's attempt to recover from the sex scandal that drove him from his Colorado Springs, Colo., church in 2006. His contrition takes on new resonance with allegations made this week by a former parishioner, who said Haggard performed a sex act in front of him when Haggard was still a pastor.

In a statement, Haggard expressed regret for having "an inappropriate relationship" with the man. HBO is adding a postscript to the documentary noting the latest development.

In an interview last week, Haggard said he has made significant progress in healing his marriage since his spectacular public downfall. After intensive counseling, the father of five children now sees himself as "a heterosexual with issues."

"I have an incredibly satisfying relationship with my wife, and I no longer have the compelling and obsessing thoughts attached to same-sex attraction that I used to," he said.

"I believe sexuality, at least for me, is confusing and complex," he added. "I really wanted to be a virtuous, wonderful man, but I had to fight hard to be a man of integrity."

Q & A with Ted Haggard

In November 2006, evangelical leader Ted Haggard was forced out of the Colorado Springs church he had founded after admitting to “sexual immorality” involving a male prostitute named Mike Jones. For the next 18 months, Haggard and his family lived in Arizona in a form of exile, having consented to leave Colorado as part of his separation agreement with New Life Church.

Filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi documented Haggard’s life after leaving the church in “The Trials of Ted Haggard,” a film premiering Thursday on HBO. We spoke to Haggard by phone last week, before a former parishioner came forward to say that the then-pastor had performed a sex act in front of him and sent him explicit text messages in 2006.

In a statement released Monday, Haggard asked for forgiveness for having an “inappropriate relationship” with the man.

Q: What do you hope people will get from watching this film?

A: Oh, there’s so much in this story -- there’s virtue, there’s vice, there’s consequences, there’s personal responsibility.... It’s just a very sad story, and now of course, it’s becoming a hopeful story. But there are so many human lessons in this documentary.

Brian Williams wins inauguration week, extends his first-place run

“NBC Nightly News” scored more than 10 million viewers for the second week in a row, extending the first-place run of the Brian Williams-anchored broadcast.

Williams drew the biggest audience again last week for the 15th week in a row, commanding an average of 10.13 million viewers at a time when President Barack Obama’s inauguration dominated the news.

ABC’s “World News with Charles Gibson” placed second with 9.17 million viewers, the only network evening newscast to gain viewers from the previous week. “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric” placed third with 7.09 million viewers.

Since the season began in late September, NBC has expanded its lead over ABC, increasing its audience by 2% compared with the same period last season, while “World News” had dropped 2%. CBS’ viewership is flat.

-- Matea Gold

Photo: Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times

'America's Next Top Model': Everything you wanted to know (or didn't) about what the girls are up to now

The bloggers at Jezebel looked it up so you don't have to -- what many of the alumnae of "America's Next Top Model" are doing now, post-show.  Some tidbits:

• Whitney Thompson is modeling for the "Women's Plus" category for JC Penney.
• Dominique Reighard won "Modelville" on "The Tyra Banks Show," which earned her a spokeswoman job with beauty company Carol's Daugther.
• Mercedes Scelba-Shorte, who came in second place on Cycle 2, has been in a bunch of TV ads for companies like Chili's, Dell, and, most recently, a Subway "$5 foot long" commercial.

Read about many more here.

--Claire Zulkey

(image credit: Jezebel.com)

Inaugural dip for 'American Idol' makes CBS No. 1

With last week's inaugural festivities depressing ratings for Fox's "American Idol," CBS managed to sneak away with a narrow ratings win for the week ending Jan. 25.

The Wednesday "Idol" was the week's most-watched program, with 25.9 million total viewers, according to figures published Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research. But the Tuesday edition -- facing stiff competition from coverage of the inaugural balls for President Obama on ABC and the cable news networks -- delivered a lower-than-usual 22.8 million.

That left just enough of an opening for CBS, which had six of the top 10 programs among total viewers. That included "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (17.6 million), which took a ratings dip in its first outing since star William L. Petersen left the forensics drama, replaced by Laurence Fishburne.

Overall, CBS took the week with an average of 10.8 million viewers, trailed by Fox (10.5 million), ABC (8.3 million) and NBC (6.5 million). CBS has won 15 of 18 weeks in the regular TV season.

Fox easily snatched the victory in adults aged 18-49, with a 3.8 rating versus runner-up ABC's 2.9. Season to date, Fox and CBS are now tied for first place in that demographic, with a 3.2 rating, although Fox will likely storm ahead as "Idol" continues its run.

On basic cable, the week's most-watched programming was CNN's coverage of Obama's inauguration speech, with 8.6 million viewers.

-- Scott Collins 

(Photo of "CSI" courtesy CBS)

'The City': Allie and her sidekick, Whitney whatsherface

At the top of tonight's episode of "The City," Whitney Port turned to coworker Olivia for advice. Whitney, after all, served as dutiful nodder, sigher and omigod-er to Lauren Conrad on "The Hills" for all that time, and the fair-haired New York newbie figured that as the star of her own spin-off, she'd have her own confidante. Not so much…

Olivia cut Whitney off just seconds into her venting sesh. "My best advice is to stay out of it," interrupted the pint-sized self-proclaimed social, explaining Whit's trials and travails were all a little high school for her heightened sensibility. "I just needed someone to talk to about it," replied Whitney, flustered, "but if you don’t want to hear it...."

Olivia smiled that purse-lipped smile that said, I'm glad we understand one another.

So, sorry Whit; looks like even on "The City" you'll be relegated to the role of incredulous bestie.

In tonight's episode, Whit served as intrepid confidante to her boyfriend's best friend's girlfriend, Allie. What, you mean you wouldn't stop what you were doing and take on the trauma of your boyfriend's best friend's girlfriend? Whom you've met all of, oh, once? Well then you are no Whitney Port. Sheesh, our heroine even donned a crown-of-thorns-inspired headpiece tonight!

'In the Motherhood' and 'Samantha Who?' get a tryout in the 'Ugly Betty' hour

ABC will yank “Ugly Betty” from its Thursday slot to make way for a new comedy block.

Starting March 26, the new comedy “In the Motherhood” will kick off the network’s Thursday prime-time lineup, followed by “Samantha Who?” with Christina Applegate. Now in its third season, “Ugly Betty” stars America Ferrera as a plain-looking young woman who works at an upscale New York fashion magazine.

“Ugly Betty” started with promise but has lately stumbled in the ratings. The 8 p.m. Thursday time slot is critical for ABC because it leads in to “Grey’s Anatomy,” one of the network’s top-rated series.

ABC said “Ugly Betty” would return to its previous schedule once the comedies have finished their runs, but did not specify a date.

In addition, the network announced that starting March 18, “Scrubs” will move to 8 p.m. Wednesdays, followed by the new comedy “Better Off Ted.” This winter that slot has been occupied by repeats of the thriller “Lost.”

-- Scott Collins