The celebrity news and gossip mill doesn’t fund itself — TV’s syndicated entertainment news magazines are as reliant on ratings as any other genre.
Over the course of the complete 2014-2015 season, “ET” was once-again the frontrunner of the nationally syndicated group, hauling in a hefty 3.3 rating and 4.713 million average viewers per episode.
Tabloid magazine show “Inside Edition” — which is admittedly more general interest than entertainment — earned a 3.0 rating and 4.406 million viewers during the 52-week season that recently wrapped. That show could easily be omitted from this study, but it has enough crossover appeal to keep it around.
The numbers in this report are Nielsen’s “most current” national ratings, which includes 7-day delayed viewing.
Harvey Levin’s “TMZ” finished for the bronze with a 1.9 rating and 2.77 million viewers. In fourth was “Access Hollywood,” which posted a 1.7 and 2.411 million viewers from Sept. to Sept.
Meanwhile, “Extra” got a 1.5 and 2.048 million viewers, and “The Insider” received 1.2 rating and 1.741 million viewers.
Televised radio program “Dish Nation” finished seventh with a 1.1 and 1.48 million viewers, while the small fry “OK! TV” managed just a 0.2 and 324,000 viewers.
So will that ranking remain after the next 12 months of Hollywood gossip? The answer is a semi-confident “probably,” as those eight offerings finished in the exact same order from top-to-bottom the prior year.