No doubt about it; Katie Couric drew strong numbers with the premiere of her new daytime talk show "Katie." But Ellen DeGeneres still has her beat.
Amid a Monday schedule that saw a glut of new daytime offerings from Couric, Jeff Probst, Ricki Lake and the season premiere of Anderson Cooper's revamped program "Anderson Live," the syndicated "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" returned to the air for a new season that scored the best premiere numbers ever for the show in the key women 25-54 demo.
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"Ellen" also beat out "Katie," which itself trounced Probst, Lake and Cooper's shows.
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The "Ellen" season premiere took in a 3.0 household rating and 8 share, besting the 2.8/8 that "Katie" brought in. Among women 25-54, "Ellen" posted a 2.2/12, her strongest lead-in to date in the demo and a 100 percent improvement over "Ellen"'s lead-in.