New Syndies Get Off to Mixed Start

Syndication’s three new nationally distributed shows—Disney-ABC's FABLife, Warner Bros.' Crime Watch Daily and NBCUniversal's Crazy Talk—debuted on Monday, Sept. 14, to mixed but not unexpected results.

FABLife, a lifestyle panel talker, debuted with the strongest ratings of the three new nationally syndicated shows, averaging a 1.1 rating/3 share among households in 53 metered markets.

FABLife, which is cleared on ABC’s eight strong owned stations in top markets, did best on ABC’s WLS Chicago, where it won its 1 p.m. time period with a 2.4/8, up 60% from last year at this time, and on ABC’s WPVI Philadelphia, where it also won its 2 p.m. time period with a 2.4/8 and improved 9% over last September. On KABC Los Angeles, FABLife bested last year's time period average by 43%, and on KGO San Francisco, the show gained over last September by 75%.

Among daytime’s key demographic of women 25-54, FABLife—which stars Tyra Banks, Chrissy Teigen, Joe Zee, Lauren Makk and Leah Ashley—did best on WABC New York at a 1.1/7, improving the time period in the demo by 38%.

Crime Watch Daily, syndication’s first national strip dedicated to covering crime, premiered at a 0.9/2 primary-run average. Crime Watch Daily saw its biggest time-period jump in Los Angeles, where it grew Tribune’s KTLA by 67% to a 1.0/2 at 5 p.m. The show, hosted by Matt Doran, did best on Tribune’s WDAF Kansas City at 1 p.m., where it turned in a 3.2/10.

And Crazy Talk, a half-hour strip that has fun talking about conflict talk and reality TV, averaged a 0.3/1. That show’s best performance among the top 25 markets came on WLFL Raleigh-Durham at midnight, where it averaged a 1.2/3 and doubled the year-ago time period rating.

Paige Albiniak

Contributing editor Paige Albiniak has been covering the business of television for more than 25 years. She is a longtime contributor to Next TV, Broadcasting + Cable and Multichannel News. She concurrently serves as editorial director for The Global Entertainment Marketing Academy of Arts & Sciences (G.E.M.A.). She has written for such publications as TVNewsCheck, The New York Post, Variety, CBS Watch and more. Albiniak was B+C’s Los Angeles bureau chief from September 2002 to 2004, and an associate editor covering Congress and lobbying for the magazine in Washington, D.C., from January 1997 - September 2002.